The closeness of the race for the Republican nomination for President and the possibility that the nominee could be chosen at the convention has drawn increasing attention to the delegate selection process.
West Virginia will send 34 delegates to Cleveland in July, but how they are chosen and which candidate each will support requires considerable explanation.
West Virginia GOP Chairman Conrad Lucas, National Committeeman Kris Warner and National Committeewoman Melody Potter will be three of the delegates. Lucas has made no endorsement and says he will support whoever wins the popular vote in the Primary. Potter also says she intends to vote at the convention for whoever wins the popular vote, even though she endorsed Cruz earlier this year.* Warner says he’s going to wait and see who wins the popular vote and then “do what’s best for West Virginia.”
Three delegates will be chosen from each of the three congressional districts in the Primary Election, for a total of nine more delegates. However, this is where it starts to get confusing.
Voters have a long list of names to go over. For example, voters in the first district will have to pick three from among 48 delegate candidates. Many, but not all, will have the presidential candidate they support listed beside their name. (i.e. JANE SMITH, Charleston, Kanawha, Trump).
But some delegate candidates are uncommitted, and that will be reflected on the ballot. Many others remain committed to candidates no longer in the race, so voters will see delegates with the names of Bush, Rubio and others next to them.
Those delegates can still win, and I’ll explain in a moment what happens then.
The final 22 are called at-large delegates. There are 220 candidates for those 22 positions and each will be listed on every Republican ballot. Like the other delegates, each will have the presidential candidate they support next to their name, unless they are uncommitted.
While they are elected statewide, no more than seven can come from each congressional district, for a total of 21, and no more than two can come from the same county. Additionally, the top vote getter statewide wins a delegate spot, bringing the at-large number to 22.
Three plus 9 plus 22 gives us a total of 34. Now we go to the convention and the fun is just beginning, because some of the delegates are committed to a candidate still in the race, others are committed to dropouts, and still others are uncommitted.
State Republican Party Chairman Conrad Lucas says delegates who committed to Bush, Christie, Rubio and all the others who suspended their campaigns are free to support any candidate who is still in the race. Lucas expects the campaigns of each of the remaining candidates to lobby the now-uncommitted delegates to support them.
“They have to make up their minds individually by the time the first ballot rolls around,” Lucas said.
Interestingly, Lucas said, the convention delegates who committed before the Primary to a candidate still in the race are under no legal obligation to vote for that candidate at the convention; A Trump delegate could conceivably vote for Cruz. However, Lucas says, history and tradition will dictate that the delegate follows their commitment.
If there is no winner after the first convention ballot, all delegates are released to vote how they wish on subsequent ballots.
The rub for many is that the popular vote for the presidential candidates in our May 10 Primary has no direct impact on how the state’s delegates are apportioned. Your vote for Trump, Cruz or Kasich does not count toward any delegate accumulation.
“I wouldn’t say the popular vote is meaningless, but the most important vote is for the delegates,” Lucas said.
Confused? You should be. Here’s a tip. Make sure you get a sample ballot for your county, scan the long list of delegate candidates and decide ahead of time who you want to vote for. That will save you having to scan through about 250 names at the polling place to decide which 22 at-large and three congressional district delegates will get your vote.
*(Editor’s note: An earlier version of the commentary did not make clear that Potter would support at the convention whoever wins the popular vote in the West Virginia Primary.)