Florida GOP Official Threatens Ron Paul Straw Poll Voter with Violence

The Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee planned to hold a straw poll on the night of the CNN-sponsored Youtube Republican debate in St. Petersburg. In October the REC Board announced the straw poll and advised its members that only 1,200 tickets would be available and sold for the straw poll. Anyone would be allowed to vote in the straw poll as long as they were over 18 years of age and held a Florida driver's license. They were also told that they should snap up the tickets quickly if they were interested in participating in the poll since the committee anticipated a large voter turnout.

Ron Paul supporter and Pinellas County REC member Sophie (last name withheld for privacy) of Clearwater, Florida was concerned about the limited number of tickets available and was considering purchasing a block of tickets that she could then individually resell to other Paul supporters. She telephoned the local REC office and spoke with a Marilyn. She asked about the possibility of buying tickets in bulk. The woman advised her that she could purchase a block of 50 tickets. Later Marilyn contacted Sophie and informed her that she would be able to purchase as many tickets as she would like. Sophie then purchased several hundred tickets and resold the prepaid tickets to fellow Paul supporters. In the end she managed to resell about 2/3 of the tickets she had bought.

Once at the straw poll, Sophie and others noticed that Mitt Romney supporters were voting for their candidate dozens of times each. The St. Petersburg Times would later document this in an article. Sophie was upset that the rules she had been told were not the rules after all. On Thursday, the day after the debate, she called chairman of the Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee, Tonoy DiMatteo to inform him of the misdeeds that had occurred at the straw poll. She was shocked when he answered: “It's too bad for you, and if you start any trouble you will be hurt.” (Watch Sophie's account of the incident here.)

Obviously upset by the incident, Sophie called her local Meetup group organizer, Paul Bourgeois, who said that Romney even had 5-year-old kids voting in the straw poll. Paul had, at an earlier time, discussed the rule changes with Tony. Mr. DiMatteo made it very clear to Paul that he and Sophie had not better take this any further or else.

If you would like to call or write Tony DiMatteo (who is, perhaps not surprisingly, a Giuliani supporter) and let him know that you will not stand for this criminal activity, have at it:

Pinellas County Republican Executive Committee Tony DiMatteo (Chairman) 727.539.6009 pinellasgop@verizon.net

Doesn't Mitt get it? This only makes the revolution stronger. They ain't seen nothin' yet.

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