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Editor, San Manuel Miner:
On May 12, 2012 at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, the Arizona State Republican Convention was held. A month earlier I was elected as an Alternate Delegate at the Pinal County (Legislative District-23) Caucus. When the opportunity presented itself I was able to volunteer to work with the Credentialing Team for Pinal County at the State Republican Convention.
As a part of the credentialing team under the Pinal County Chairman, I and another Ron Paul supporter was paired with two Romney supporters. It ended up that it was just me as the person who carpooled with me had to leave because of a family emergency. I woke up early the morning of the convention as I had to be at GCU at 6:45 a.m. for credentialing training.
Going through the big double glass doors and meeting with the Pinal County Chairman and his wife inside. We eventually went in to the room off to the right for training. After the training and the packets for all of the delegates and alternates arrived we had to credential ourselves first.
To get the box of credentials I had to show my state ID. Then the other two team members and I went to the Pinal County Credentialing table outside. The procedure to checking credentials was that a delegate or alternate had to show a State ID/Drivers license or a voter registration card. We were to double check the envelope that we handed them to make sure that the correct badge (white for Delegates and tan for Alternates) and that they only had one and the name was correct on the badge.
When we got out at the table the Romney supporters started the process of credentialing. One of the problems with credentialing was that the leaf part of the envelope for the packets that folds over was not tucked inside the packets. Because of this the loose leafs encapsulated more that one packet making flipping through them difficult. Other than that everything went smoothly with credentialing.
At the end of credentialing which I had the impression that it was to close at exactly 9 a.m. We were not too close until the Pinal County Chairman came out to officially announce that credentialing was closed. Some of the other County tables had already closed before this. At the end of credentialing Pinal County had 50 delegates and 13 alternates present at the convention.
Some things to note as I worked the credentialing table is that were not allowed to wear or pass out any candidate or campaign specific swag or literature. This included shirts, sticker, buttons, literature like platform specific slates. As credentialing slowed down at the Pinal County table apparently one of the Romney supporters working with me was able to obtain their platform slate. This they said was their conservative slate.
It was on orange paper that said “Platform Republican” at the top. At the bottom it read “Ron Paul supporters bring phony slates to Republican election meetings. This paper is the true and accurate Platform Republican slate.” I said OK and folded the paper up and put in my pocket. They apparently did not know I was a Ron Paul Supporter. Another thing that I noted while credentialing was the table next to us had a group of people congregating behind it. I was not sure that that was supposed to be happening as did the Romney supporters working with me.
When I entered the doors again to the busy lobby I was immediately distracted because I needed to find the restrooms and was stopped by a Romney supporter who was handing out yet another slate. This was on green paper and labelled at the top with “Official Unity Slate” and at the bottom “Paid for by Romney for President”. I was given a Romney sticker and told to wear it. Instead of wearing it I stuck it on the green slate and folded it up and placed it in my pocket with the orange slate.
I knew that the alternates were above the floor where the delegates were seated but it took me a few moments of wondering around to find the sign that said “Alternates Only”. I was also supposed to find other Ron Paul supporters from my county who were alternates and sit with them. However I never could not find any. So I sat in the Alternate section by myself as the convention started with prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.
I noticed the Pinal County Chairman’s wife on the delegate floor motioning for someone to come down. I was not sure if she was motioning for me or someone else to come down. When I looked behind me I noticed that the two Romney supporters I was working with at the credentialing table earlier were at the top of the stairs. So I got up and quickly followed them to where they were re-credentialing as delegates to be seated on the floor. The Supervisor District-Two Chairman was there and said he was looking for me. I managed to get re-credentialed and seated as a delegate.
The delegate floor was arranged by County. When I found my county I sat with many of the Ron Paul Supporters and was able to get the Ron Paul Slate and updates. The seating was a bit cramped. After the speeches and noise making it was time to divide up according to Congressional Districts and vote for “A” and “B” delegates.
Because I am in CD1 we had to go upstairs to the right of the stage. When we got there was more cramped sitting arrangements with uncomfortable fold up chairs. We sat according to County within our Congregational District. Before we could get started in our CD caucus we were told we had to go back to the delegate floor because we were not supposed to leave until they adjourned the meeting.
So as we got back down to the delegate floor and to our seats I noticed that to the left of the Pinal County seating was the CD8 caucus. They were apparently not told the same thing as we were. They were trying to block people from sitting in the delegate seating and getting to where they were supposed to be by pushing, shoving and taping the path off. They eventually figured out that they to were supposed to go back to their seating on the delegate floor like everyone else. Then after more speaking they finally officially adjourned the meeting and we went back to the Congregational District caucuses to vote for “A” and “B” delegates.
We first voted for the “A” delegate it was then someone pointed out that at the bottom of the ballot there was asterisk that said “endorsed by Romney” and certain people on the ballot had asterisks by their name which was coordinated by the green “Unity” slate. We were told we could vote for three people for the “A” and “B” delegates. However, our strategy was to vote for only one person to concentrate our vote. I voted for the Ron Paul candidate for the “A” delegate in Congressional District 1. Once the ballots were collected they were handed to the secretary, who was a Romney supporter (apparent by the sticker he was wearing).
After waiting a while the results came back for the “A” delegate. The winner was declared as someone with just 15 votes. How could this be? We disputed this and it was asked how many voted only for the Ron Paul candidate in CD1. In response 40 to 50 people raised their hands. After this an investigation ensued and a Paul supporter was to accompany the secretary to the area below us where they were counting the vote.
After a long time waiting it was determined that it was a ballot/programming error with the Diebold counting machines. The way the ballots work, it was explained, is that each name on the ballot has a numbered order associated with it. The Diebold machines count the number associated with the names on the ballots. It was discovered that a name that was supposed to be on the ballot was left off and this messed up the counting in the Diebold machines.
From there on it was agreed that the Electronic count was to be followed by a hand counting of the ballots. After more waiting we finally got the results and it was confirmed that the Ron Paul candidate in CD1 won the “A” Delegate slot with well over 40 votes.
We then proceeded with voting for the “B” Delegate. Again every one voting with the Ron Paul slate voted for their candidate in CD1. This time we placed the ballots in a box which then were ushered back down to be counted by the secretary accompanied by our Ron Paul person.
Eventually we were told that if we felt that the vote for the “B” delegate was accurate we could return to the floor. We all decided to stay. After several more hours they decided that we needed to return the floor to continue with the convention and the results would be read while we were out there. As we started to proceed to the floor at the very last minute the results of the “B” delegate vote came up. The Ron Paul candidate in CD1 won with a large portion of the vote.
We finally got back down to the floor and sat in our county seating. After more speaking and announcements we proceeded to vote for the Delegates at large and National Committeeman/woman. We first voted for the “A” delegates at large and then the “B” delegates at large. After finishing our votes we deposited the ballots into the plastic box to taken back and counted.
The convention continued by taking nominations from the floor for the National Committeeman/woman. The Ron Paul slate voted for the former State Senator, Karen Johnson and the Supervisor District-Two Chairman who were nominated from the floor. Once finished with that vote we deposited the ballots into the box again to be counted. Then the wait began again. They wanted to adjourn the convention and said that if they needed to do a re-vote for National Committeeman/woman it would be done by mail. Every one said no. Then the GOP leaders stood around for a long time discussing what to do. While we waited it felt like they turned off the air conditioning because it got considerably hot.
They finally announced the winners for the National Committeeman/woman position. The former State Senator won by a landslide. However, the Supervisor District-Two Chairman did not win allegedly. They still stated that they might still do the mail ballots as well.
They never announced the results of the delegates and alternates at large. Then it was eventually announced by Tom Morressey and his gabble to adjourn the convention to the objection to the remaining delegates on the floor. The majority of Romney supporters had left leaving mostly Ron Paul supporters. The Arizona GOP did not want to do a new vote with the majority of Romney supporters gone.
After Morressey quickly left the building after not properly adjourning the meeting another person took the microphone on the stage and started to speak. He was censored by the GCU campus police who promptly pushed the microphone a way from him and was wrestled away from the podium. He eventually got away from them and everyone moved upfront to the stage to hear what he was saying.
It was decided to continue with the convention without the GOP leadership of Tom Morressey. We then proceeded to elect a new chair who was the Legislative District-6 Chairman, a Ron Paul supporter. During this time they started lowering the lights and forced us into the parking lot. This is when we congregated around the RV that was the Ron Paul Precinct Committeeman booth in the church parking lot next door. The Legislative District-6 Chairman continued with his speech there. I helped with the tear down and packing away of the equipment for the PC booth as we were heckled by campus police.
I have not heard any more as to the results of the delegates/alternates at large and whether or not the electing of a new GOP chair will stick.
/s/ Ashley William Pritchard
Republican Precinct Committeeman (Precinct #6 – Mammoth)
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