As those who have followed the Republican election know, there are some very goofy rules and regulations regarding the distribution of delegates across the various states.
Winner Take All vs Proportioned Delegates (aka Pledged Delegates)
Some states (each GOP decides which), award their delegates via a Winner Take All method. For example, if a state has 100 delegates and candidate A wins 53% of the vote, and candidate B wins 46% of the vote and 1% are for candidate C, then Candidate A wins all 100 delegates. Other states have a Proportioned method. Using the same percentages above, A would only get 53 delegates, B would have 46 and C would have 1. Some may not even award C with any, but give it to one of the others.
Voters vs Caucuses
There are two separate ways in which to vote. First is the quick and easy, unmuddled everyone goes out and votes. The other method is that you have to attend a state convention (Caucus) and vote there. Clearly, I am for the every person has a say method. However, those who really want to be heard, would surely make attendance at a convention in their state happen.
Pledged and Unpledged Delegates
In addition to "pledged" delegates (explained above), most states also have "unpledged" or "free" delegates. These delegates are voted for by the people or are automatically selected in some cases where there were just enough delegates to fill the positions. These delegates can vote however they want during the national convention, and delegates are not bound to any candidate. When voting, devoted voters knew who each delegate supports and whom to put their vote behind going to the convention as an unpledged delegate.
Carroll Correl and His Adult Sized Temper-tantrum
He is is PLEDGED delegate for the great state of Virginia. His job? Vote for who the citizens of the great state of Virginia wanted him to vote for. Problem? He doesn't like who the citizens want him to vote for. Solution? Throw a tantrum and file lawsuits so you can vote for who you want to vote for, CLEARLY!
Virginia has 49 Pledged Delegates which are distributed Proportionately. There were 1,012,807 votes cast this year. Approximately every 20,670 votes is worth 1 delegate. Trump won the state with 17 delegates (355,960 votes). Mr. Correl is a supporter of Ted Cruz, who only won 8 delegates (173,193 votes). For Mr. Correl to say "I don't want to vote for Donald Trump" is to say that the over 20,000 votes which he represents are pointless - he would essentially be voting 20,000 times by doing whatever he wanted. Mr. Correl knew prior to the election what his job was to do. Mr. Correl knew he had to vote as the people wanted. Mr. Correl knew Virginia had no unpledged delegates. Mr. Correl assumed he would be voting for "his guy". When it came down to the nitty-gritty, Mr. Carroll Correl has definitely made a bad ASSumption.
Looking further on the flip side - what if Cruz had won the state and a Trump co-chairman was designated a Cruz delegate. What if that person wanted to vote for whomever they wanted to? Your pants would be all in a bunch because "Cruz won fair and square, to hell with your ideals, do your job and vote Cruz". THIS is why our party is crashing down around us. We need the elitist pigs to unite with everyone else under one republican banner and move forward.
I hope that the judge decides that he (Mr. Correl) had his right to vote as a delegate and a representative of the people and that free speech has nothing do to with this issue. If he has a problem, send in an alternate so he does not have to go against his "personal ethical beliefs".
Updates will be posted as they occur!
UPDATE: [7/14/2016]
A technical "win" for the opponents of Virginia law. The law stating that Virginians MUST vote in a winner take all fashion was found unconstitutional. Why do I call it "technical"? Because Virginia is a proportional state. MEANING - the delegates are allowed to vote for whomever they wish so long as the overall 49 votes are assigned proportionally to the ACTUAL election results. If Sandy Loo is a delegate who does not like Cruz - she would then vote for Trump and Mr. Correl would be free to vote for Cruz. Now how I read this - if everyone is pretty set in their delegation and no one wants to swap with Mr. Correl, he's then pretty S.O.L..
See the excerpt from CNN News:
At issue in the lawsuit was a previously ignored part of Virginia election law that mandates delegates to the national convention to vote in a winner-take-all fashion, instead of proportionally as Republicans had planned. Judge Robert E. Payne said Monday the winner-take-all portion of the state law was unconstitutional and can't be enforced.
The ruling means that Republicans can vote how they have always intended to — with the state's 49 delegates bound to vote proportionally based on the March 1 results — without fear of criminal prosecution. Though the chances of prosecution were always remote: state officials said before the ruling they had no plans to prosecute anyone for how they voted at the GOP convention.
CLICK HERE to read the full article from CNN News.
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