UNDERSTANDING THE MULTI-DELEGATE PROCESS

My question is: At the end of the Primary, when all the delegates meet in Tampa, what about all the Non-Romney Delegates? What if they choose 1 guy who's not Mitt-how does this work? Ron Paul's delegates + Rick Santorum's delegates + Newt Gingrich's delegates all add up to much more than Mitt Romney.

So please explain what happens to them or for that matter all the previous delegates from IOWA, NH and SC that the drop out candidates accumulates (I know its not much but would still like to know this process).

Princess Leah

Almost all the delegates from primaries are bound to their candidate for at least the first round of voting. I do not believe it matters if the candidate has withdrawn or not. I imagine that depends upon the rules of the state.

Varies somewhat from state to state, but generally they are committed to their pledged delegate for at least the first ballot, then they are free to vote for anybody they want.

In order to secure the nomination, the candidate must get 50% of the delegates plus one. I think the number is 1,144 or something like that. In other words, once a candidate gets the required number of delegates, then he will have more delegates than all other candidates combined.

If there is a vote of delegates at the convention where no candidate gets the required number, then there is trading, wheeling and dealing — a brokered convention.

study 1852 and you will be an expert
49 ballots

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1852_Democratic_National_Convention

Here’s basically what happens - for the first ballotings, all delegates must vote for the candidate they are pledged for. After that, if no one manages to gain the number of delegates required to get the nomination, then the delegates are allowed to vote as they wish. This is why selecting delegates and alternates can actually matter in a contentious election like this.

Often what you see is the various blocks trying to hammer out an agreement that is acceptable to enough people to gain the majority. It is actually rather like the coalition building process in a parliamentary government. A candidate might agree to take on certain planks from another candidate in exchange for their delegates, or for giving them the VP slot or promising a Cabinet position. In addition to these sorts of backroom deals, there will also be a lot of horsetrading among the delegates and alternates themselves, trying to convince people who are on the fence or pledged to a candidate with no chance at victory why they should vote for another candidate instead.

This process can go on for days, until a clear victor emerges. Sometimes it even means that someone who was not initially considered a real candidate might be pulled in, due to the fact that everyone else proved too divisive to get a majority. Generally these are people who are not notable enough on the national level to have made a large number of political enemies and are considered to be acceptable to the bulk of the party.

The 1880 and 1920 Republican Conventions are probably good examples of what happens when the party is heavily divided and there are no clear leading candidates.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1880_Republican_National_Convention

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1920_Republican_National_Convention

Some people are going to claim its a fix...

Some will say any candidate who is not affiliated with “major” political parties, rich enough to fund their own campaigns for elected office...Been elected before to some office sometime or somewhere in the past...

You will be told that YOU just don’t know how the “system” works...

Well, my response to that nonsense from elected officials is...

“Maybe what YOU consider “how” things work is different that our perseption...So all I can say is, it ain’t working!”

If Florida and other stae treated these primaries more like a regular election, instead of a social party (get together), with realistic filing requirements, and strict voter registration laws and running of those polling locations...

Then maybe the process would be taken more seriously, much less the results be somewhat more credible...Not losing entire precinct results of a local caucus or polling location, more votes that registered voters in a particular voting district, people coming in from out of state to vote in a non-regulated caucus or primary, etc etc etc...

Like I was illiciting in the Texas board...

I think we need to stop the process now that Mitt Romney has S.S. protection...Its all over...No need to waste money on what the Party leaderships have wanted all along...

Besides, its Mitt’s turn!!! We need to respect and comply with the moderate Republican party leaderships’ intention for the last few years...ITS MITTS TURN!!!

This is just the way its going to be, and we should never question the political left or the middle ever again!!! We do not have much in the way of conservative right elected to office these days, and we lose and compramise every frappin’ time we go to the ring with these people...

So why, oh why do we need to continue to question the results or process of these caucuses an primaries???

Sorry for the negastive tone and wide range of the reply, but I do not think even with any of the candidates left in the race that we have any chance to beat Obama...

So, what are our options???

I would say we need to totally neuter the administration by taking the Senate and keeping the Congress, and hope nothing gets done for the next 4 years...

Just my opinion...