(NEWS CENTER) -- Republicans in at least two counties are still complaining about how the state GOP is handling its presidential preference poll.
Party chairman Charlie Webster admits some mistakes were made, but says they did not change the ultimate result of Saturday's caucuses. He says he isn't going to step down because of the controversy -- but the dispute has some people wondering if Maine would be better off having a traditional presidential primary instead.
Maine did have primaries in 1996 and 2000. Before that, and since, its been town and city caucuses.
But the votes for president are not binding -- and some political leaders think a primary would be better and attract a lot more people.
This year's republican caucuses did attract two of the national candidates. Both Mitt Romney and Ron Paul came to Maine to campaign and worked behind the scenes to build support.
But the caucus votes for president were just a preference poll.
Other than publicity and bragging rights, they don't mean anything to the race for president.
State Senator Debra Plowman told us that discourages people from attending caucuses.
A true primary, like New Hampshire's, would feature a statewide vote on one day, managed and counted like any other election.
It would be up to the legislature to create a Maine primary. There is no move to do that this year.
NEWS CENTER