Is the fix in, or is West Virginia just doing West Virginia things?

[Quipling]

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/trump-likely-to-win-west-virginia-but-lose-delegates-222036

West Virginia's Republican ballot is a six-page form that places the delegate elections behind dozens of state legislative and county races. Some voters, West Virginia GOP insiders said, stop voting before they make it to the delegates. But getting there is the easy part ...

First, people vote for delegates individually. You can vote for 22. Voting for more than 22 automatically disqualifies your entire ballot. The candidates have varying numbers of delegates to choose from, but both Trump and Cruz have more than 30, and there are an additional 20+ uncommitted delegates. Most voters just vote the first 22 alphabetically.

HOWEVER, a rule disqualifies having more than two delegates from the any given county. And of the first 22 delegates on Trump's list, 9 are from the same county. So if most people for Trump just vote the first 22 delegates ... 7 of their votes are disqualified.

Unsurprisingly, Cruz's campaign planned for this in terms of delegate selection. Trump's did not.

Gamesmanship? Laudable preperation? A fix to exclude outsiders, or a fix to exclude unprepared idiots?

 

[GSP in 2006]

Honestly, sounds like another example of Trump having a shitty ground team & not knowing the odd particular rules of a certain state.

It will be another Colorado. A week after WV is done, he'll be on tv bitching about it. When he really should be bitching at his people for being unprepared again.

 

[Fawlty]

Yeah it sounds like West Virginia is stupid and Trump is underprepared for technical campaign work. No change to the universe.

 

[uncommon]

Are the rules at least outlined on the ballot? are the county names listed next to the delagates? if not i can see this as being dishonest on part of the rnc

 

[Quipling]

Are the rules at least outlined on the ballot? are the county names listed next to the delagates? if not i can see this as being dishonest on part of the rnc

This can be answered by the clever trick of reading the article and clicking on the link that answers your questions via a sample ballot.

 

[GSP in 2006]

Are the rules at least outlined on the ballot? are the county names listed next to the delagates? if not i can see this as being dishonest on part of the rnc

From reading article, the county names are on the ballot, but that rule is not on the ballot itself.

Its unclear if West Virginia mails out a voters pamphlet. So I'm unsure how the voters are supposed to know the rules.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

That sounds needlessly complicated by normal standards.

For West Virginia standards, you may as well ask them to do some Laurent series equations.

 

[uncommon]

This can be answered by the clever trick of reading the article and clicking on the link that answers your questions via a sample ballot.

i see it now, Cruz seems to run same county problem as trump. how exactly did he prepare for the selection?

 

[Quipling]

i see it now, Cruz seems to run same county problem as trump. how exactly did he prepare for the selection?

¶20-22, 25.

 

[VivaRevolution]

I here a lot of talk about how this is on Trump for not knowing the rules. Perhaps some of you are new to politics. These rules weren't always in place. 20 years ago if their were closed primaries they were few and far between.

I remember when the closed primary rules were sweeping the country, and the people that were screaming foul, and called nutters for even thinking the system was being gamed.

I think the question here should be, when were these rules put into place?

If they are 50+ years old, I don't think this counts as things being rigged against an anti-establishment candidate.

If this rule was put into place, 5, 10, 15 years ago, it stinks. Can I prove defrauding voters? Nope, but that doesn't mean it doesn't smell like Hillary's vag.

 

[GSP in 2006]

I here a lot of talk about how this is on Trump for not knowing the rules. Perhaps some of you are new to politics. These rules weren't always in place. 20 years ago if their were closed primaries they were few and far between.

I remember when the closed primary rules were sweeping the country, and the people that were screaming foul, and called nutters for even thinking the system was being gamed.

I think the question here should be, when were these rules put into place?

If they are 50+ years old, I don't think this counts as things being rigged against an anti-establishment candidate.

If this rule was put into place, 5, 10, 15 years ago, it stinks. Can I prove defrauding voters? Nope, but that doesn't mean it doesn't smell like Hillary's vag.

No need to go all CT. From the article:

But Stuart, the Trump campaign chairman, said West Virginia’s delegate selection process has needed reforming for years and that they’re “designed to maintain the status quo.”

Its a dumb process, I'll tell you that, but its not a new one.