A funny thing happened on the way to the Maine Republican convention.

On a cold and soggy Saturday morning, the elderly couple shivering in line in front of me turned out to be Democrats. These two septuagenarians were not there to sabotage the convention by voting fraudulently in a Republican gathering. No, they were there as nonvoting guests. They felt compelled to show their support for Ron Paul.

These nonvoting Democrats were joined by a couple thousand Republican delegates who did vote for Ron Paul. As a result, they elected Brent Tweed as the convention chairman and then elected nearly a full slate of Ron Paul national delegates.

That is democracy in action. We vote, they count the votes, the chips fall where they may.

Contrary to comments published by this paper, there was nothing underhanded about the GOP convention.

Yes, someone issued a slate of national delegates that looked very similar to the ballot issued by the Ron Paul camp. Call it creative gamesmanship.

Maine GOP Party Chairman Charlie Webster extended the Saturday schedule by several hours to allow recount after recount of the votes for secretary and chairman. Credit Webster for making sure all votes got counted this time around.

Webster and Tweed both did an admirable job of shepherding the GOP convention. At the end of the day, Ron Paul won Maine. No fluke, this story has been repeated in Iowa, Nevada, Minnesota and even Mitt’s Massachusetts backyard.

Ron Paul must be saying, “Can you hear me now?”

David Sawicki, Auburn