Maine to recount caucus votes after protests from Paul supporters

The Maine Republican Party is asking county and town chairman to resubmit vote totals from last week's presidential caucuses after reports of missing and incorrect vote totals have thrown Mitt Romney's narrow win over Ron Paul into question.

A significant revision in the vote totals could be the second high-profile embarrassment for a state Republican party in the still-young campaign, after Iowa Republicans announced more than two weeks after their first-in-the-nation caucus that, in fact, Rick Santorum had defeated Mitt Romney. Romney had edged Santorum by eight votes in results released by the party on election night.

“We are confirming the totals from the presidential preference straw poll,” an e-mail from the Maine GOP sent Thursday said, according to the Portland Press Herald. “Can you please email me the totals from your towns?”

Maine GOP chairman Charlie Webster said that the updated totals - which would include one country where voting was suspended because of a looming snow storm - would be reviewed by the state committee in early March, and updated on the party's website. That county has been a traditional stronghold for Ron Paul, and the cancellation if it's caucus drew cries of protest from the Texas congressman's campaign.

“We have worked diligently to contact town chairmen throughout Maine to reconfirm the results of their individual caucuses. These totals once confirmed will be posted on the Maine Republican Party Web site," Webster said in a statement.

Paul, who trailed Romney by less than 200 votes according to the state party, said earlier this week that he did not plan to concede the state.

“This is an outrage," John Tate, Paul's campaign manager, said in an email to supporters. "But our campaign is in this race to win, and will stay in it to the very end."

A win in Maine would be the first for Paul, the only remaining GOP candidate not to have won a nominating contest. But the Paul campaign said Sunday that it was confident that whatever the results turned out to be, Paul would win the most delegates out of the state. Maine's caucuses are non-binding, with delegates selected at a convention in May.

-- Josh Lederman contributed to the reporting of this article.

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