“When’s the last time enough delegates broke the “legally-bound-on-first-ballot” rule, when a candidate had over the required amount of delegates before the convention?”
Well, first of all, if you read the article you would see that there are a couple of court cases cited and the rulings in those cases are that state laws regarding voting cannot supercede the private entity of the RNC rules for voting for a nominee. So, there is no “legally bound on the first ballot”.
Second of all, enough delegates for what? To allow someone else to win the nomination rather than the person who was the presumptive nominee because of the number of state delegates they won is what I assume you mean? I do not know the answer to that question. But, if you’re that curious you could do the research and let us know. I would be interested to know the answer.
But, you understand there are technically right now no required number of delegates because the rules for this convention have not been written yet. Just as there is a presumptive nominee there are also a presumptive number of required delegates. For example, the rules committee could decide the nominee needs 2000 delegates to win the nomination, which would then lead to another contested convention.
OK let me rephrase the questions, first adding some info:
Info:
Each state’s system for allocating delegates has been brought out in excruciating detail as we have moved through this primary season, and we have seen how many delegates thus far are in each candidate’s tally column, how many are needed, what percentage of remaining are needed, etc.
We have been told over and over again that 1237 is the number required to clinch the Republican nomination.
My questions:
1) When is the last time a Republican candidate had enough delegates (or —more—) to clinch the nomination, and —then afterward— enough delegates went and broke the “bound at the first ballot” rule, so as to deny that candidate the nomination and give it to the second place candidate?
2) When is the last time a Republican candidate had enough delegates (or —more—) to clinch the nomination, and then the convention went and changed the rules on how many were needed, and pulled the rug out from the leading candidate?
3) When is the last time a Republican candidate was referred to as “presumptive nominee”, when they had sufficient (or more) number of delegates to secure the nomination?
Give me historical events for 1), 2), and 3) above.