Delegate Allocation - The Republican Primaries March On

This year's Republican primary has been a very long road for the candidates. The media has been following the race very closely and has put great attention on the state elections. But what must be noted is that the winner of the state elections is not the all-important factor. In order to win the Republican nomination, a candidate must secure delegates, not votes, to win. So what is important is not necessarily the popular vote but instead who acquires the most delegates.

When looking at the number of delegates acquired by a candidate, there are two different types of contest to pay attention to.  It is important to know that each state has different sets of rules for the exact way delegates are selected, but this article is to give a general overview of the two distinct types of state contest a delegate can participate in.

The first of the two is the caucus-state. In caucus-states, voters of these states attend local private events that are run by political parties where the attendants listen to heads of each campaign and then cast their votes for which candidate they want. Most events are held in high school gymnasiums, town halls, and other small venues. Twenty states in the 2012 Republican nomination election are using the caucus system. The main system of delegate allocation in caucus-states is the convention system. With conventions, delegates are not bound to candidates and instead decide which candidate they support at the conventions that are usually held later in the year than the date of the caucus elections. In order to ensure that a delegate backs a certain candidate, it takes a great deal of local-level organization on the part of the candidate's campaign team to ensure delegates. This especially becomes vital in a close race between two or more candidates. Fifteen caucus-states use the convention system to allocate delegates. Nevada, Alaska, and North Dakota are the only three caucus-states to use a proportional system to allocate delegates. Idaho is the only Caucus state that uses a winner-take-all system of delegate allocation and Kansas uses a mixed system of winner-take-all and proportional system of delegate allocation.  Proportional, winner-take-all and mixed systems will be explained in the next paragraph.

The second type of contest is the primary state election. Unlike the caucus election, they are run by state and local government, and residents go to polling places and simply cast their vote for the candidate they prefer. This is the more widely used system of state elections, with thirty-six states using the primary system. The primary-states use mainly use two systems of delegate-allocation: winner-take-all and proportional.  Twelve primary elections use a winner-take-all system of allocating delegates, in which the candidate who wins popular vote is awarded all of the delegates for that state.  Eighteen primary-states use a proportional system where a state allocates delegates to candidates according to what percentage of popular vote the candidate receives, or to the percentage of districts the candidate wins majority in.  Ohio, Vermont, and Connecticut are the only primary-states that use a mixed system where a certain amount of delegates are automatically given to the winner and the rest are distributed according to the proportion of votes they receive or the percentage of districts they have won. Meanwhile Indiana, Illinois, and Pennsylvania are the only primary states that use a convention-style of delegate allocation. 

   It should be noted that these numbers do include Guam, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Isles, US Virgin Islands, Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.

   While these figures are general outlines of the major types of State elections and delegate allocations, the specifics of elections and delegate allocations varies from state to state. A delegate is not bound legally to any candidate and in the end is free to support any candidate he chooses. Although some states use the winner-take-all and proportional systems, these delegates can still choose to support any candidate they want. This is a rarity, however, and delegates almost always support the candidate they are allocated to.