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delegates were only bound to vote along with primary results at the 1976 convention and that the requirement was repealed in 1980.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.
Then what is the point of voting in a Primary if only the Delegates votes matter?
George wanted to have the GOP lose house,Senate and State Elections.
After he accomplished that he met with a Chicago activist and radical Saul Alinsky to further destroy the GOP
Not we have Mitt
Rope. Tree. RNC official. Some assembly required.
Then the joke is on the RINOcrats. I’m voting for Trump in November, even if I have to write his name in.
I have been anticipating having to write-in my canditate....
I’m with you.
>>We’re called a Representative Republic for a reason!
But, in the end it is the “representative” part that gives them the power to vote against our will and that may cause us to withdraw the “consent of the governed”.
We’ve all lived in the comfortable two-party system for our entire life. Are we brave enough to actually throw the GOP in the trash and strike out into undiscovered country?
I’m ready to let this country burn if the UniParty engineers a Prog victory.
How to kill a party 101.
Republicans, say hello to the Whigs.
So the RNC is looking for a revolution? This would be a good start.
This is the end of the Gopee whether Trump wins or not. The Gopee is aggressively stupid and will certainly pull this stunt at the convention. They will lose the executive, senate and maybe congress.
“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.”
This guy Haugland needs to be told to leave the Party and not let the door hit him in the ass on the way out. His suggestion is so antithetical to the ideals of this country (and the Party) as to be utterly destructive to both. He’s the poster child for what’s wrong with the Party, and why Donald Trump even decided to run, let alone why he’s been so successful.
I personally hope and pray that Trump wins OH tonight. Between that, winning FL, and winning in both NC and IL (and let’s not forget the Marianas Islands!), it’ll be just about over. Buh bye to Robotio and Kasich, and Cruz will be just about mathematically unable to win the 1,237 votes.
They will lose all state elections and Congress.
Count on it.
I think so. Voters who are disenfranchised will stay home and the bottom of the ballot will suffer.
Time for a Conservative 3rd party if this happens.
I don’t the GOP can claim to be the lessor of two evils if they pull a stunt like this.
I would actually love to see Trump get the number and the Republicans take it away from him. They’ll be done for many, many years. This crop of crooks will be long gone before it becomes a viable party again (If they ever do)
Which is why this moronic bluster is just that.
I think this is true if he is relatively close
They won’t loose the election in November, they won’t be on the ballot, this party will be dissolved.
Is Rubio still their guy, or have they switched to Cruz, or Kasich? Maybe Hillary? Give her both parties’ nominations and be done with it! At least they won’t have that pesky Trump fella to deal with.
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