Posted on 03/15/2016 8:26:42 AM PDT by TigerClaws
Republican National Committeeman Curly Haugland of North Dakota sent a letter on Friday to fellow RNC officials arguing that current party rules allow 2016 Republican National Convention delegates to vote for the presidential candidate of their personal preference during the first round of voting, rather than voting along with the will of voters in their states.
Haughland wrote in a letter published by The Daily Caller that the party’s Rule 38, also called “Unit Rule,” specifically allows Republican convention delegates to vote their conscience in every vote at the convention.
“Every delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention is a completely free agent, free to vote for the candidate of their choice on every ballot at the convention in Cleveland in July. Every delegate is a Superdelegate!” claimed Haughland, who also pointed out that he has “been defending the right of the delegates to the Republican National Convention to vote according to their personal choice in all matters to come before the Republican National Convention, including the vote to nominate the Republican Candidate for President, for several years.”
Haughland, who is a member of the RNC’s Standing Rules Committee, claims that convention delegates were only bound to vote along with primary results at the 1976 convention and that the requirement was repealed in 1980.
He said that Tom Josefiak of the RNC’s Counsel’s Office gave a 2006 presentation to the Standing Rules Committee in which he counseled, “One of the important rules changes over the last 50 years has been the unit rule prohibited… that change was made so that an individual delegate can vote his or her conscience.”
Haughland, who told The Daily Caller that he believes Trump will not obtain enough delegates to win the nomination, said, “The nominee of the party must receive a majority of the votes of the permanently feted delegates of the convention. That means it doesn’t make any difference what has happened in terms of primary voters, because they don’t count at the convention. It’s only the delegates at the convention whose votes matter.”
News of Haughland’s effort to convince the RNC of his interpretation of convention rules comes on the heels of a Truth in Media report that the GOP establishment is working to force a brokered convention by attempting to deny frontrunner Donald Trump the delegates necessary to clinch the nomination during the first round of voting at the convention in hopes that another candidate will prevail in a subsequent round.
If the establishment picks anyone other than the person who won the most delegates, the GOP will lose in November.
Unless RNC darling Rubio drops out, he could very well be our nominee? Is that how this works?
So they can vote Trump unanimously on the first ballot?
Does this mean that Mittens will be the GOP nominee again?
They will lose all state elections and Congress.
Count on it.
If Trump gets the plurality of votes going into the convention and the GOP takes the nomination away from him, all hell will break loose.
That’s the plan.
He is technically correct in that it is not an RNC rule for delegates.
**HOWEVER**
Most State parties bind the delegates they send to the Convention. And those States that do not bind their delegates, generally have the candidates select which candidates represent them in the so called “loophole” contests. (Illinois and Pennsylvania for example.)
So while he is technically (de jure) correct that no delegate is bound by convention rules, he is incorrect (de facto) due to the fact that all delegates must abide by their State rules as well.
THIS is the kind of talk that will end the GOP.
If Trump wins the required delegates and DOESN’T get the nomination, the Republican party is done.
DA&^%$^# RNC
They are SO LUCKY Hillary is Demonic Spawn.
If we get to ‘lessor of two evils’.
I don’t think you’re gonna want an (R) behind your name if you pull that kind of stunt.
There will finally be a catalyst for a credible third party. If the first two parties thwart the will of the people then they are of no use whatsoever.
If the MSM thought Chicago was bad, let the GOPe not hold the delegates accountable to the voters on the 1st ballot.
Will the GOP still be even a third party in 2020 if that happens this year? The GOP is going into full Whig mode.
Of course they can.
They are the EXEMPT GOP, trained LIARs,
always deceptive to their voters,
always voting for ObamaTRADE,
and always obedient to Obama and
his Moslem Brotherhood, Iran, al Qaeda and N.Korea.
I don't think they care, given that some would support the Hildebeast over Trump and Cruz. They would still keep their power over us peons teaching us all a lesson in going against them and their preferred Rhino selection.
Do these GOPe types know what can happen when you play around with explosives? If they continue along this path, they're likely to find out.
I think that the RNC needs to understand that if Trump or Cruz is not the nominee because of fishy rules that I will go nuclear and never vote republican again.
People need to pay attention to this.
‘Sea Island Republican’ Hugh Hewitt has been predicting an open convention since January.
This is the latest fallback position of the GOP establishment now that Jeb! and Marco Rubio have flamed out.
If Trump or Cruz fail to gain enough votes to win on the first ballot the GOP establishment will nominate the candidate of their choice, which is likely to be Mitt Romney.
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