Did campaign chair alter votes at all?

[jimnyc]

I wouldn't have a clue how the word spreads on such things, nor who would vote for who if another candidate drops out.

But apparently that's what Cruz's campaign accidentally did. He told folks that Ben Carson had dropped out of the race, when obviously this didn't happen. This started from a CNN report that Carson was taking a detour, not quitting. I don't see how this affects anyone other than Ben Carson, and he's rightfully upset about it. I don't think he would have won, but he could have done better, maybe even jump started his campaign a little? Who knows. I like his response as well. He just seems like such an honest and nice guy.

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Ben Carson: Cruz's Apology Needs Accountability

During an appearance on the FOX Business Network’s ‘After the Bell,’ Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson responded to an apology from Ted Cruz, after his campaign allegedly spread false rumors that the retired neurosurgeon was ending his 2016 bid.

“As Christians, of course we accept people’s apologies,” Carson said. “We also have to ask ourselves is this acceptable to us, the American people, or should there be some accountability?”

Carson added: “There should be some consequences for things. You don’t just say ‘oh, okay, sorry… okay let’s move on.’ The damage was done to me, it wasn’t done to them.”

http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2016/02/02/ben-carson-cruzs-apology-needs-accountability.html

[Kathianne]

While this entry is in reaction to what Trump was tweeting, the paragraph seems relevant:

http://hotair.com/archives/2016/02/03/trump-ted-cruz-stole-the-election-in-iowa-so-we-should-have-a-do-over/


Well, for starters, Carson actually outperformed (http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/ia/iowa_republican_presidential_caucus-3194.html) his final polling average, finishing with 9.3 percent of the vote after being predicted to finish with 7.7 percent. If there had been a mass exodus to Cruz, you’d expect him to have underperformed unless Carson was on track to finish way, way better than anyone expected. The final margin between Cruz and Trump was a bit more than 6,000 votes; Carson ended up with 17,000+ votes (https://www.iagopcaucuses.com/#/state), meaning that roughly a quarter of his supporters would have had to defect at the last minute based on the erroneous news from CNN, which Team Carson rapidly corrected — and every last one of those defectors would have had to go to Cruz. Realistically, though, defecting Carsonites would have split between Cruz, Trump, and Rubio, meaning that an even higher percentage of his total support (http://thefederalist.com/2016/02/03/was-donald-trump-really-cheated-out-of-iowa/) would have had to break away at the last second to create that 6,000-vote margin for Cruz. Does anyone think the CNN bulletin instantly caused, say, 50 percent of Carson fans to dump him? Trump blithely insists in his tweet that “many people” switched from Carson to Cruz. Where’s the evidence?

Seems other sources also got the CNN report wrong, including Business Insider:

http://www.trevorloudon.com/2016/02/cnn-not-cruz-staff-responsible-for-ben-carson-campaign-suspension-rumor/