The State Fair’s most iconic figure and even President Obama were among the write-in votes at this past weekend’s Iowa Republican Party Straw Poll in Ames.
“There were votes for the Butter Cow. It happens in every election, just random votes that didn’t equate with a person,” says Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz, a Republican who oversaw the Straw Poll balloting. ”Most of them were fictitious characters.”
Schultz and his fellow counters used existing state rules for primaries and the General Election to sift through the votes cast in Saturday’s Straw Poll. That means anyone who spelled Texas Governor Rick Perry’s name with an A instead of an E had their vote counted as a vote for Perry.
Comedian Stephen Colbert of cable television’s Comedy Central had used money from his “Super PAC” to buy ads on Des Moines TV stations, encouraging a write-in campaign for Rick Parry.
… Almost 17,000 Straw Poll votes were cast. Palin was among the 218 votes reported as “scattered” votes by the GOP. The State Fair’s butter cow and Obama were part of that group along with Palin.
Party organizers rented 10 electronic voting machines from county officials to use for the voting. Write-in names had to be counted by hand.
Full Article: Butter Cow, Obama, “Parry” & “Paylin” all got Straw Poll votes.