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February 11, 2008
Posted: 12:30 PM ET
(CNN) — Mike Huckabee continued to cry foul Monday over the results in Saturday’s Washington State GOP caucuses, saying the state party chairman's decision to call the race there early for John McCain is reminiscent of elections in communist bloc nations. "That is not what we do in American elections," Huckabee said on CNN's American Morning Monday. "Maybe that's how they used to conduct it in the old Soviet Union, but you don't just throw people's votes out and say, 'well, we're not going to bother counting them because we kind of think we know where this was going.' In a statement released Sunday, Huckabee's campaign said Washington's GOP Party Chairman Luke Esser called the race for McCain when Huckabee was only losing to the Arizona senator by 242 votes and over 1,500 votes remained to be counted. Esser has said he remains confident he made the right call. Speaking on CNN, Huckabee said the campaign has sent lawyers to the state to formally challenge the result. "I was just stunned," Huckabee said. "It's the kind of thing that Republicans across America, not just in Washington State, ought to be outraged over." The former Arkansas governor also brushed aside McCain's claim of being the presumptive nominee, citing his wins in Kansas and Louisiana over the weekend. "As long as my guys are waving their pompons, we'll stay on the field," he said of his White House bid. Meanwhile, speaking with reporters on Monday morning, McCain said he is confident he won the Washington caucuses, but said Huckabee has the right to challenge the result. "I think it is pretty clear that we won. And some of these are close — there was a couple of close races that we had with Gov. Huckabee, but he certainly has the right to challenge if he choses to," McCain said. "But I honestly don’t know enough about details except that I know that state parties declare elections when they have sufficient evidence as to who has won and who has lost." – CNN Producer Alexander Mooney Filed under: Mike Huckabee
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