# 2012 Maine Republican presidential caucuses

Elections in Maine :
Federal offices
U.S. President
1820
1824
1828
1832
1836
1840
1844
1848
1852
1856
1860
1864
1868
1872
1876
1880
1884
1888
1892
1896
1900
1904
1908
1912
1916
1920
1924
1928
1932
1936
1940
1944
1948
1952
1956
1960
1964
1968
1972
1976
1980
1984
Dem
1988
1992
1996
2000
Dem
2004
Dem
2008
Dem
Rep
2012
Rep
2016
Dem
Rep
2020
Dem
Rep
2024
Dem
Rep
U.S. Senate
1820
1821
1823
1823
1827
1829 sp
1835
1835 sp
1837 sp
1839
1840
1843 sp
1846
1848 sp
1851
1854 sp
1857
1857 sp
1859
1861 sp
1863
1865 sp
1869
1870 sp
1875
1877
1877 sp
1880
1881
1881 sp
1883
1887
1889
1893
1895
1899
1901
1905
1907
1911
1912 sp
1913
1916
1916 sp
1918
1922
1924
1926 sp
1928
1930
1934
1936
1940
1942
1946
1948
1952
1954
1958
1960
1964
1966
1970
1972
1976
1978
1982
1984
1988
1990
1994
1996
2000
2002
2006
2008
2012
2014
2018
2020
2024
2026
U.S. House of Representatives
1820–1821
1822 sp 2nd
1823
1824–1825
1826–1827
1826 sp 5th
1827 sp 1st
1828–1830
1830
1833
1834
1836
1838
1840
1843
1844
1846
1848
1850
1852
1854
1856
1858
1860
1860 sp 5th
1862
1864
1866
1868
1870
1872
1874
1876
1878
1880
1881 sp 2nd
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1897 sp 3rd
1898
1899 sp 1st
1899 sp 2nd
1900
1901 sp 4th
1902
1904
1906
1908
1908 sp 2nd
1908 sp 4th
1910
1912
1913 sp 3rd
1914
1916
1918
1920
1922
1924
1926
1928
1930
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1940 sp 2nd
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1951 sp 3rd
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1962
1964
1966
1968
1970
1972
1974
1976
1978
1980
1982
1984
1986
1988
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
2026 :
State government
Gubernatorial elections
1820
1821
1822
1823
1824
1825
1826
1827
1828
1829
1830
1831
1832
1833
1834
1835
1836
1837
1838
1839
1840
1841
1842
1843
1844
1845
1846
1847
1848
1849
1850
1852
1853
1854
1855
1856
1857
1858
1859
1860
1861
1862
1863
1864
1865
1866
1867
1868
1869
1870
1871
1872
1873
1874
1875
1876
1877
1878
1879
1880
1882
1884
1886
1888
1890
1892
1894
1896
1898
1900
1902
1904
1906
1908
1910
1912
1914
1916
1918
1920
1922
1924
1926
1928
1930
1932
1934
1936
1938
1940
1942
1944
1946
1948
1950
1952
1954
1956
1958
1960
1962
1966
1970
1974
1978
1982
1986
1990
1994
1998
2002
2006
2010
2014
2018
2022
2026
State Senate elections
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
State House elections
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024 :
Ballot measures
People's vetoes
2009Question 1
2011Question 1
2018Question 1 (Jun)
2020Question 1
Citizen initiated referendums
2012Question 1
2014Question 1
2015Question 1
2016
Question 1
Question 2
Question 3
Question 4
Question 5
2017
Question 1
Question 2
2018
Question 1 (Nov)
2021
Question 1
2023
Question 1
Constitutional amendments
2021
Question 3
Legislatively referred referendums
2024
Question 5 :
City of Portland
Mayoral elections
2011
2015
2019
2023 :
vte :
The 2012 Maine Republican presidential caucuses were held between Sunday, January 29, and Saturday, March 3, at various locations throughout the state of Maine. Presidential preference polls (straw polls) were held at the caucuses, but those polls were not binding on the choices of delegates to the Maine Republican Party convention. The caucuses chose delegates in processes separate from the straw polling.
The state party encouraged all municipal committees to hold their caucuses between February 4 and February 11, although each committee was free to choose a different date. The first caucus was in Waldo County on January 29 and the last one in Castine (Hancock County) on March 3. On Saturday, February 11, after 84% of precincts had completed voting, state-party officials announced results of straw polls. The results were revised in a second declaration on February 17 to include previously missing results from several caucuses. Those statewide totals still did not include the caucuses in Washington County, which had been scheduled for February 11 but postponed to February 18 by predictions of bad weather, nor did they include caucuses originally scheduled to occur between February 16 and March 3. The state Republican Party issued a third statewide compilation on February 24, adding all the February 18 caucuses (scheduled and postponed), but not those for February 16 or March 3. All three statewide totals showed former Governor Mitt Romney leading Representative Ron Paul by small margins, with other candidates well behind.
At the State Convention held over the weekend of May 5–6, Ron Paul won 20 out of 24 national delegates. One elected delegate, Governor Paul LePage is uncommitted. Of the three delegates qualified by the party offices they already hold, the state party chairman, Charlie Webster is also uncommitted, while the current National Committeeman and Committeewoman are committed to Mitt Romney.

## Process

Like most Republican Party caucuses, there are two components to the Maine caucuses. First, delegates are elected from among the attendees to represent them at the state convention, to be held Saturday–Sunday, May 5–6, 2012. Candidates generally provide slates of delegates to voters who are interested in supporting them, and voters can ask prospective delegates whom they support for president. Then, a straw poll, called a presidential preference ballot, is taken of the individuals in the room. The results of this vote are transmitted to the media, which uses the information to report the opinions of Maine Republicans to the public; and to assign delegates to the candidates, although the aforementioned state convention is what determines who actually goes to the Republican National Convention. No delegates from Maine are pledged to any candidate.

## Results
### Caucuses held by Saturday, February 11

As of February 11, 98 precincts (16.3%) had yet to report. Forty-seven of those precincts were in Washington County, where reports of a possible snow storm caused the caucus to be rescheduled to February 18. As of February 14, 177 towns in Maine had not reported any results. Updated results were released by the Maine GOP on February 17.
Maine Republican caucuses, 2012 :
| Candidate | Votes (Feb. 11) | Percent (Feb. 11) | Votes (Feb. 17) | Percent (Feb. 17) | Projected delegate count | Projected delegate count |
| Candidate | Votes (Feb. 11) | Percent (Feb. 11) | Votes (Feb. 17) | Percent (Feb. 17) | AP | CNN |
| Mitt Romney | 2,190 | 39.2% | 2,269 | 39.0% | 11 | 11 |
| Ron Paul | 1,996 | 35.7% | 2,030 | 34.9% | 10 | 7 |
| Rick Santorum | 989 | 17.7% | 1,052 | 18.1% | 0 | 3 |
| Newt Gingrich | 349 | 6.2% | 391 | 6.7% | 0 | 0 |
| Other | 61 | 1.1% | 72 | 1.2% | 0 | 0 |
| Total: | 5,585 | 100.0% | 5,814 | 100.0% | 21 | 21 |
| Ex officio delegates (not chosen through caucus process): | Ex officio delegates (not chosen through caucus process): | Ex officio delegates (not chosen through caucus process): | Ex officio delegates (not chosen through caucus process): | Ex officio delegates (not chosen through caucus process): | 3 | 3 |
| Total Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention: | Total Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention: | Total Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention: | Total Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention: | Total Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention: | 24 | 24 |

### Caucuses held after February 11
#### Thursday, February 16

Republicans in the town of Rome (Kennebec County) held their caucus on Thursday evening, February 16.

#### Saturday, February 18

As the Maine GOP caucuses continued on Saturday February 18, The Bangor Daily News and The Portland Press Herald reported the following results:
* Washington County (held in East Machias): Paul 163, Romney 80, Santorum 57, Gingrich 4, Undecided 2;
* Danforth (separate caucus in Washington Co.): Romney 6, Paul 4, Santorum 2, Gingrich 1;
* Town of Clinton (Kennebec Co.): Paul 4, Romney 2;
* Eight towns in Hancock County caucusing in Hancock (Gouldsboro, Hancock, Lamoine, Waltham, Sorrento, Sullivan, Winter Harbor and Fletcher's Landing): Paul 41, Santorum 17, Romney 16, Gingrich 9; the Hancock County Republican Committee's own returns for these towns add up to the same totals for each candidate except only 8 for Newt Gingrich.
* Aurora/Amherst, Eastbrook, Franklin, Mariaville and Osborn (Hancock County) caucusing in Eastbrook: Paul 19, Santorum 8, Romney 7, Gingrich 0.

#### Saturday, March 3

Republicans in the town of Castine (Hancock County) held their caucus on Saturday, March 3, but presidential preferences have not yet been reported.

#### Summary table

| Date | Site of caucus | County | Mitt Romney | Ron Paul | Rick Santorum | Newt Gingrich | Un- decided | Total votes |
| Feb. 16 | Rome | Kennebec | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | - | 7 |
| Feb. 18 | East Machias | Washington | 80 | 163 | 57 | 4 | 2 | 306 |
| Feb. 18 | Danforth | Washington | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | - | 13 |
| Feb. 18 | Clinton | Kennebec | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | 6 |
| Feb. 18 | Hancock | Hancock | 16 | 41 | 17 | 8-9 * | - | 82-83 |
| Feb. 18 | Eastbrook | Hancock | 7 | 19 | 8 | - | - | 34 |
| Subtotals (February 16–18) | Subtotals (February 16–18) | Subtotals (February 16–18) | 112 | 234 | 86 | 14-15 | 2 | 448-449 |
| March 3 | Castine | Hancock | held but not yet reported | held but not yet reported | held but not yet reported | held but not yet reported | held but not yet reported | held but not yet reported |
| * (see the discussion above of the Hancock caucus totals) ||||||||||

#### Status of caucuses held after February 11

On Thursday, February 16, the executive committee of the Maine Republican Party authorized Party Chairman Charlie Webster to release a statement that concluded:
   ... The results of the Washington County caucus will be reviewed at the March 10 Republican State Committee Meeting. The Executive Committee voted unanimously to recommend to the State Committee that they include the results in the final tally for the Presidential Preference Poll as their caucus had been scheduled to occur by the February 11 deadline, however it was postponed due to inclement weather.
Maine Senate President Kevin Raye stated that the final tally would be updated to include the results from Washington County, but that the State Committee would vote on March 10 to determine if the other towns who voluntarily held their caucuses after the February 11 deadline would be included.

### Results as of February 24

Updated results were released by the Maine GOP on February 24. The new table does not show returns from Rome on February 16 or Castine on March 3, but does include returns from the towns listed above for February 18.
Maine Republican caucuses, 2012 :
| Candidate | Votes (Feb. 11 count) | Votes (Feb. 17 count) | Votes (Feb. 24 count) | Percent (Feb. 11 count) | Percent (Feb. 17 count) | Percent (Feb. 24 count) | Projected Delegates | Projected Delegates | Projected Delegates | Chosen at State Convention |
| Candidate | Votes (Feb. 11 count) | Votes (Feb. 17 count) | Votes (Feb. 24 count) | Percent (Feb. 11 count) | Percent (Feb. 17 count) | Percent (Feb. 24 count) | GP | CNN | AP | Chosen at State Convention |
| Mitt Romney | 2,190 | 2,269 | 2,373 | 39.2% | 39.0% | 38.0% | 10 | 9 | 11 | 0 |
| Ron Paul | 1,996 | 2,030 | 2,258 | 35.7% | 34.9% | 36.1% | 8 | 9 | 10 | 20 |
| Rick Santorum | 989 | 1,052 | 1,136 | 17.7% | 18.1% | 18.2% | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Newt Gingrich | 349 | 391 | 405 | 6.2% | 6.7% | 6.5% | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Others & undecided | 61 | 72 | 78 | 1.1% | 1.2% | 1.2% | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Total: | 5,585 | 5,814 | 6,250 | 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% | 21 | 21 | 21 | 21 |
| Ex officio delegates (not chosen through caucus process): | Ex officio delegates (not chosen through caucus process): | Ex officio delegates (not chosen through caucus process): | Ex officio delegates (not chosen through caucus process): | Ex officio delegates (not chosen through caucus process): | Ex officio delegates (not chosen through caucus process): | Ex officio delegates (not chosen through caucus process): | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
| Total Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention: | Total Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention: | Total Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention: | Total Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention: | Total Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention: | Total Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention: | Total Maine delegates to the Republican National Convention: | 24 | 24 | 24 | 24 |

## 2012 Maine Republican State Convention

The state convention was held Saturday, May 5 and Sunday, May 6 at the Augusta Civic Center. The convention as a whole elected 15 delegates to the national convention. Delegates from Maine's two congressional districts caucused separately within the convention to elect three national-convention delegates for each district. The remaining three delegates (determined ex officio, as officers of the state party) were Charlie Webster (State Chairman), Richard A. Bennett (National Committeeman), and Jan Staples (National Committeewoman). Charlie Webster had not pledged to support the nomination of any presidential candidate at the national convention, whereas Jan Staples and Richard Bennett pledged to support Governor Romney's nomination. Maine Governor Paul LePage was elected to be a delegate and had not pledged to any candidate. The other 20 delegates were elected as Paul supporters.
Convention Results :
| Candidate | 1st Cong. Dist. | 2nd Cong. Dist. | State | Party officers | Total |
| Ron Paul | 3 | 3 | 14 | 0 | 20 |
| Mitt Romney | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Uncommitted | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Total: | 3 | 3 | 15 | 3 | 24 |
About ten days before the convention, Charlie Webster sent an email announcing that Charles Cragin, a former state convention chairman, would also chair the 2012 convention. This was in contradiction to state law and the party's bylaws, which stated that a convention secretary and chairman are to be elected by the convention.
On Saturday, Ron Morrell, a Paul supporter, was elected Secretary of the convention, receiving 1119 of 2204 votes cast. Then another Paul supporter, Brent Tweed, was elected Chairman of the convention, narrowly defeating Charles Cragin, 1118 votes to 1114.
On Sunday, the convention amended the party platform proposed by the state platform committee, then rejected the amended platform. Therefore, the 2010 platform remained in effect as the platform for 2012. The convention elected Paul supporters as National Committeeman and National Committeewoman and to over 30 of the state committee seats.
Challenges to the rulings of the convention chairman consumed time to the extent that the Republican candidates for U.S. Senate were not able to make their scheduled speeches.
Romney supporters including Cragin and Maine Rep. Jeffrey Timberlake expressed that the proceedings were improper and that the Paul-dominated delegation would not be seated at the national convention. Peter Cianchette and Jan Staples filed a challenge with the RNC alleging improper credentialing, lax floor security, illegal voting, lack of a quorum, and violations of rules and parliamentary procedures. The delegation turned down a compromise, offered by Charlie Webster, by which the challenge would have been withdrawn if the delegates pledged to vote for Romney and agreed to let Webster or Governor LePage chair the delegation. However, Webster did not consult Staples in composing the proposal, and Staples said she did not accept its provisions. Radio host Ray Richardson, a "close acquaintance" of LePage, reported that LePage said that he would not attend the national convention if the Maine delegation were not seated. LePage is the only one of the 21 elected delegates whose position is not being challenged.

## Caucus Controversies
### Voiding of Portland's election of state delegates

The Washington Post wrote on February 12, "Party officials announced at the end of the Riverton Elementary School caucus [for Portland] that there had been a discrepancy in the final tally of state delegate ballots, and that they had received 19 more ballot sheets than they had the green index cards that voters turned in when they took their ballots." About 50 delegate candidates had given ten-second speeches for themselves, and "only a handful" had been for candidates other than Paul. That vote was to choose 73 delegates, but the overage of ballots caused the vote to be voided in accordance with party rules.

### Missing caucus results

A controversy nicknamed "Where's Waldo?" centered around 17 towns in Waldo County holding a joint caucus whose preference ballots were tabulated and submitted on time but not included in the final preference tally by the state GOP. These votes included 43 for Paul, 41 for Santorum, 35 for Romney and 18 for Gingrich—not enough by itself to change the statewide winner, but enough to reduce Romney's margin of victory. Waldo County GOP Chairman Raymond St. Onge said the results were sent to the state party on February 7 and that as of February 14 he had not received an answer from the Maine GOP as to why Waldo County's results were omitted. Members of the Waldo County GOP Committee voted "by a strong majority" on February 14 to recommend a censure of Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster for his handling of the caucuses.
Waterville is in Kennebec County, and its preference ballots, too, were not counted into the statewide total, despite being cast before the deadline. Ron Paul had won there with 21 of 26 votes cast.
On February 15, the Maine Republican Party tallied votes accidentally omitted from the results of the February 11 caucus, but Webster said they would not release the updated results publicly. Subsequently, on February 16 the Maine Republican party announced that the missing caucus results, including those of Washington County, would be tallied and the updated results posted on their website.

### Later caucuses not counted

The postponement of the caucuses in certain precincts generated controversy due to the voting margin between Romney and Paul in the official straw poll, officials of the state party saying that the postponed caucuses would not be counted. In particular, the postponement of caucuses in Washington County was criticized by the Paul campaign given what they expected to be a good performance in the county. John Tate, the campaign manager for Ron Paul, sent an e-mail to supporters declaring the situation an "outrage" and questioning the decision to postpone due to an expected snow storm, which turned out to be light snowfall. Paul spokesman Jesse Benton also stated the campaign was confident Paul would control the delegation from Maine at the national convention.
Maine Republican State Chairman Charlie Webster said, "Some caucuses decided not to participate in this poll and will caucus after this announcement," and "Their results will not be factored in. The absent votes will not be factored into this announcement after the fact." Ruth Summers, vice chair of the Maine GOP, made a similar statement.
Washington County GOP Chairman Chris Gardner, a Romney supporter, said he had not expected that delaying the caucuses would cause his county's preference poll to be disregarded, and said that that would be "extremely disheartening". He said, "We will proceed next Saturday. We'll have our vote and we are going to submit it to the state party for them to reconsider." He also said, "The fact of the matter is we're going to hold our vote, we're going to announce the results and the media can do its own math," and "Regardless of who wins, those votes need to be counted and that's what we're doing."
Numerous Maine Republicans and local observers have commented on the inclusion of the preference ballots from the delayed caucuses.
In a February 12 New York Times blog entry, Nate Silver questioned whether counting the postponed caucuses could help Paul win, and he stated, "Just 113 votes total were cast in [Washington] county in 2008, and only 8 of those were for Mr. Paul." In that entry Silver linked to an online putative copy of the tally of the 2008 Maine Republican preference ballots supporting his claim. However Ben Swann of Fox 19 in Cincinnati said February 17 that adding the votes from Waterville and from Waldo, Hancock, and Washington Counties, together with bigger-than-2008 turnouts in Hancock and Washington Counties, could enable Paul to win the preference poll for Maine overall.
Eric White, the Republican chairman for Hancock County, which had scheduled some of its caucuses for February 18 and later, told Ben Swann that Charlie Webster had changed the rules in the middle of the game. White said that he himself had attended no less than five state GOP meetings and that the scheduling of caucuses for February 18 had never been an issue at those meetings. Swann quoted White as saying that White first learned February 12 of the supposed February 11 deadline for counting the results of the preference poll---after Webster had announced that Romney had won and after the deadline had passed.

### Updated tallies

USA Today reported on February 15 that Jesse Benton, Ron Paul's national campaign chairman, said Paul "isn't going to press for a recount in the Maine caucuses". Benton called a recount "irrelevant" since Paul would receive a "strong majority" of Maine's delegates. However, an email sent by the Maine GOP to county and town chairs asked for totals to be resubmitted. Errors in the original tally were attributed to issues such as emails containing tallies accidentally being sent to spam folders. The updated results, released on February 17, showed that Mitt Romney led by 239 votes; however, Charlie Webster, chairman of the Maine Republican Party, stated that no recount would take place: "There's no way to recount. These were just slips of paper that were thrown away after."