Republican National Convention rules, 2012

Ballotpedia ^

[don-o]

RULE NO. 23

Contest Filing

(a) Notices of contests shall state: (i) the name and address of the person filing the notice (“the contestant”), (ii) the name of the delegate or alternate delegate being contested, and (iii) the grounds of the contest and the basis of the contestant’s claim to sit as a delegate or alternate delegate to the national convention, and shall be filed no later than thirty (30) days before the time set for the meeting of the national convention, with the secretary of the Republican National Committee and shall be sent, simultaneously, by registered mail to each person being contested, and to the chairman of the Republican state committee of the state. In the case of delegates or alternate delegates elected or selected at a time or times in accordance with applicable state law rendering impossible the filing of the notice of contest within the time above specified, such notice must be filed within three (3) days of the certification in accordance with Rule No. 20 of any delegates or alternate delegates so elected or selected.

(b) Contests may be filed only by a resident of the state of the challenged delegate(s) or alternate delegate(s) who participated at any level in the delegate selection process of that state.

(c) No person shall file more than one contest against the same delegate(s) or alternate delegate(s).

(d) Only contests that are timely filed under these rules shall be considered.

(e) For purposes of the rules relating to contests and credentials, the term “party” shall mean a person or persons who shall have filed a notice of contest pursuant to this Rule No. 23, and the person or persons whose right to be seated as a delegate or alternate delegate is the subject of such notice of contest.

[don-o]

From the 2012 rules. I had read that the rules for the 2016 Convention were to be enacted one week before the convention convened. However, Rule 23 states that any delegate challenge must be filed 30 days before.

Am I reading this right?

[RoosterRedux]

I think you read that right.

I would think that any delegate challenges would have been filed by that time anyway.

For the Trump campaign, that's the job of Paul Manafort. I don't know who is managing it for Cruz.

[don-o]

I hope the challenges from both sides are shared widely by both sides.

[RoosterRedux]

Yup. I hope both Cruz and Trump are well-aware that the GOPe is going to play dirty.

[Hawthorn]

Interesting. Thanks for posting!

I note that nowhere in Rule 40 is there mention of votes for candidates who have not been formally nominated. Could be a problem if delegates pledged to Kasich and Rubio voted for those gents on the first ballot, even though their names hadn't formally been placed in nomination.

Nor is there any provision for nominating new candidates for the second and subsequent ballots.

Therefore, both the first and second ballots could present the presiding officer with some extremely tricky and contentious issues that are covered neither by the Convention Rules nor by Roberts' Rules of Order.

Bottom Line: I guess I wouldn't want to be in Ryan's chair!