Sen. Ted Cruz tops Trump by 4 votes in Nelson County caucus results

NELSON COUNTY GAZETTE / WBRT RADIO
STAFF REPORT

Saturday, March 5, 2016, 7:18 p.m. — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz narrowly bested Donald Trump in the Nelson County Republican caucus by 4 votes with Cruz getting 650 votes to Trump’s 646 votes — or 34.95 percent of the vote vs. 34.73 percent.

They were followed by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 323 votes (17.37 percent) and Ohio Gov. John Kasich with 202 votes (10.86 percent).

Voter turnout for the Nelson County presidential caucus was approximately 18 percent, according to Alan Brown Jr., the caucus chairman.

Voters waiting to vote at Bardstown High School look over a sample ballot prior to casting votes in Saturday’s first-ever Kentucky Republican presidential caucus.

Speaking by telephone after the votes were counted and forward to Frankfort, Brown said voters began arriving Saturday morning an hour and a half prior to the 10 a.m. caucus start time.

The turnout was significantly better than the GOP primary four years ago, when 12 percent of registered Republican turned out to vote.

The promise by caucus supporters of making Kentucky more relevant in the GOP presidential primary have been confirmed, he said.

Brown and his volunteers found themselves scrambling to cope with the large number of voters, and he ended up doubling the number of people working to check IDs and get people signed-in to vote.

Counting the ballots was not delayed until caucus closed at 4 p.m., he said. Vote-counting was an ongoing process through the caucus period, and the results were checked and re-checked before they were forwarded to state GOP headquarters. At the end of the caucus, the actual paper ballots were then forwarded to Frankfort.

The state GOP caucus rules forbid county caucus officials from releasing caucus results to local media. The state GOP and the Associated Press began releasing results at about 7 p.m.

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