Where neighbors met in caucuses for the 1996 GOP Presidential Primaries, or where paper ballots were hand-counted in the precincts, Patrick Buchanan did well, or won.

Where computers "counted" the votes, Buchanan always "lost" badly. After Arizona, Dole "won" every contest in overwhelming "landslides", often as high as 81% to 19%.

In the first caucus in Alaska on Feb 6, 1996, Buchanan overwhelmed Sen. Gramm 4 to 1, and Sen. Dole 2 to 1.

Louisiana, set up by Gramm people to try and insure an early Gramm victory, limited the voting sites to only 42 locations in the whole state! Voting machines were used so, strictly speaking, the accuracy of the published results could not be verified. But Buchanan sentiment was so obvious in the long lines waiting to vote at most of the 42 sites, that it would have been extremely risky for the establishment Republicans to publish results showing Gramm the victor. Buchanan won 2 to 1.

Next came the Iowa Caucuses, which like Alaska, saw neighbors voting and counting ballots on the spot. Even according to the Voter News Service partially falsified results, Buchanan came in a close 2nd, allegedly losing to Dole 26% to 23%. (See related story, Voter News Service Pg 2 Top)

In the New Hampshire Primary, 70% of the ballots were hand counted by neighbors at the precinct. A surprise ad by a group calling itself "Citizens for a Fair Vote Count" appeared the morning of the New Hampshire primary. The ad all but accused the 4 Big TV networks of helping rig US elections by publishing phony "projections" right as the polls close to prepare the voters for the phony computer results which would be announced later in the evening. Significantly, Citizens for a Fair Vote Count threatened to publish a comparison of the computer counted precincts against the hand counted precincts if Buchanan lost. Unlike 1992, when Buchanan's vote count unexplainably dropped steadily as the night progressed, while Bush's, quite suspiciously, remained constant, - in 1996 Buchanan won N.H.

But then came the computer counted states, starting with Delaware and Arizona. Forbes, we are told, "won" Delaware and Arizona. After that, Dole "won" all the rest of the computer counted states by truly incredible landslides.

But wait! Even after 25 or 26 computer "landslides" for Dole, Buchanan handily won the Missouri Caucus 34% to 27% (for Dole), which like Alaska, was a verifiable, unriggable caucus where neighbors met and counted the votes right on the spot.