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<< Previous   of   Next >> Associated Press  (click to enlarge) Associated Press In this photograph provided by "M  (click to enlarge) (click to enlarge) Republican presidential hopeful, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks at a news conference in Annapolis, Md. Monday, Feb. 11, 2008. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)   ADVERTISEMENT   ADDITIONAL ITEMS • Read the state GOP's open letter on the caucus (External Link)   Related Stories • Tacos, tigers and tallies 2/12/08 • 8 Democratic Party superdelegates remain on fence 2/12/08 • Obama would beat McCain, so far 2/12/08   CONTACT THE HERALD Robert Frank, City Editor frank@heraldnet.com   Published: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 County GOP's tally comes under fire Confusion arose over how voters were counted By Jerry Cornfield Herald Writer Under the intense glare of a national spotlight, Republican leaders in Snohomish County and the state endured a barrage of questions Monday about the presidential caucuses, the most important of which is whether Sen. John McCain actually won. And for the third time in three days, state party chairman Luke Esser said he did. "We feel good about the product we delivered," Esser said late Monday upon issuing revised totals showing McCain narrowly ahead of Mike Huckabee with 96 percent of precincts tallied. Esser declared McCain the winner Saturday night and again Sunday while enduring criticism from the Huckabee for pronouncing a winner before all of the votes had been counted. As it turned out the bigger issue Monday were excess votes that had been counted, including hundreds from Snohomish County. In what Esser called a "miscommunication," Snohomish County provided the number of votes for candidates cast by each caucus attendee. The state party only wanted the choice of those elected as delegates, a much smaller number and one that Snohomish County did not have Saturday night. "Apparently there was a miscommunication of the information we needed," Esser said. After mathematical adjustments, McCain had 3,191 delegate votes (25.6 percent) and Huckabee had 2,898 (23.3 percent). Rep. Ron Paul finished third with 21.4 percent. "We have until the 16th to get the information in," said Geri Modrell, chairwoman of the Snohomish County Republican Party said of the delegate votes. "It's a time-consuming process. The people in our office want to make sure the information that goes in to the state party is absolutely accurate. "Who would have guessed there would be such furor," she said. "I just want people to relax a little bit." There's been no relaxation for Esser and the rest of the state party's officials the past two days. Huckabee pressed his case Monday for a full account of the conduct of the party caucuses. Attorney Karen Blackistone of the Washington, D.C., law firm HoltzmanVogel, whose expertise includes election fraud, is in the state to assist the Huckabee campaign. "We just want certainty that all the votes will be counted," said campaign spokeswoman Alice Stewart. Huckabee campaign chairman Ed Rollins on Monday wrote Esser demanding he remove caucus results from the party's Web site and that he make clear publicly that the counting is not done and the outcome is not determined. This dispute comes as Huckabee and McCain continue campaigning for votes in GOP's Feb. 19 presidential primary. Washington is unique because it is splitting its 40 delegates between the caucuses and the primary. Several Republicans said Monday they think Huckabee may hurt himself with primary voters with his campaign's blistering of the state Republican operation. "This sort of a nasty attack by Ed Rollins is foolish and destructive and is going to cost Governor Huckabee a lot of support in our state," said Alex Hayes, a Republican campaign consultant. "Our caucuses aren't designed to yield a winner the way Ed Rollins and the national media wants," he said. At caucuses, people who want to be delegates are selected. While they may express a preference for a candidate, they are not bound to that choice as they go to the county convention. If they make it to the state convention in Spokane in May, then they must stick with their choice. "I don't understand the flap," said Paul Elvig of Everett, a former Snohomish County Republican Party chairman. "I think they are looking for a headline and somebody is not fairly reporting to the governor what the rules of the party caucus are here. "Nobody won any national delegates Saturday from this state in the Republican Party," he said. On Saturday, when people arrived at caucuses in Snohomish County and the rest of the state, they signed in and marked the name of the candidate they preferred. Caucuses concluded with selection of delegates, each of whom declared their preferred candidate. The number of delegates is much smaller than the number of people participating. Modrell said she phoned the state party and provided the tally off the sign-in sheets. It showed Huckabee with 620 and McCain with 489. Snohomish County did not tally the delegates' candidate choices as did other counties. It was the delegate preferences Esser relied on and posted as results. The state party stopped counting Saturday night with what Esser called 87 percent of the results. On Sunday, tabulating resumed, reaching 93.3 percent. At that point, McCain still led with 3,621 precinct delegates (25.4 percent) to Huckabee's 3,398 (23.8 percent) -- a difference of 223 out of 14,253. Huckabee's persistence is earning him national media attention, something his campaign may have felt they lost Saturday night. He trails McCain in the overall race for delegates but has vowed to stay in the race until a candidate earns the 1,191 delegates needed to win the nomination. He won the caucus in Kansas and the primary in Louisiana on Saturday. A win in Washington would have allowed him to trumpet victories in three regions of the nation. The campaign may feel Esser deprived them of that moment by calling the state for McCain. Evelyn Spencer, political director for the Snohomish County Republican Party, said she's not going to second guess the state party chairman's action. "It's not a big deal. We in Washington and Snohomish County are going to report what happened in the best, fair and accurate manner and we will let the chips fall where they may." Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com. State GOP caucus With 96 percent of precincts reporting: John McCain 25.6% Mike Huckabee 23.3% Ron Paul 21.4% Mitt Romney 15.3% Uncommitted 13.3%

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