A version of this post originally appeared on Candy Noble’s personal blog.
Quick reminder: don’t forget to vote tomorrow (Tuesday, November 3) if you didn’t early vote. There are 7 Texas Constitutional Amendments for all Texas voters, and additional local bond and other issues on some local ballots.
Collin County voters may vote at any polling location tomorrow. Polls are open from 7am-7pm. Polling locations can be found here: Collin County Election Locations
For Dallas County voters: polls are also open from 7am-7pm but you must vote at your local Precinct location. To find that location visit: http://www.dallascountyvotes.
I’ve been getting a lot of questions about the Presidential Delegate selection process, so I thought now would be a good time to talk about how it’s done. If you’ve been part of the process before, only a couple of things have changed this time around. We have a lot of new-to-the-process folks and I remember what it was like being new and a little lost when I first got involved. Hope this email helps. I’ll do my best to keep it simple.
Not one vote has yet been cast in a Presidential Primary. Don’t let the press (and opinion polls) fool you. Until Republican Voters head to the polls, and there is a lot up for grabs. There are a total of 2470 Delegates that will decide our Republican Presidential candidate, so 1236 are needed for a single candidate to win the nomination. Here is a source that makes it pretty clear how many Delegates each State and Territory gets and why (scroll down this website’s page for an interesting chart): http://www.thegreenpapers.com/
I think it is fascinating that Puerto Rico gets more Delegates than several states, but evidently they have more Republicans there. Some states hold “Non-binding” Caucuses or Primaries where no Delegates are awarded—just basically a beauty pageant. Not sure why they bother. The RNC frowns on that.
Iowa’s up first with a February 2 Primary, followed by New Hampshire on February 9, and South Carolina and Nevada onFebruary 23. Texas, and eleven other states are next, holding our Primary on March 1.
Each State or Territory decides their own Delegate selection process. Texas, because we are awesome, awards our Delegates to Candidates based on our Primary Election results. In other words, each Delegate is told who they will vote for at the National Convention based on the votes cast in their home Congressional District (for at least the first round of voting). In a “Brokered National Convention” -where no one candidate has the needed 1236 Delegates- things change quickly from there, so it is important who each Delegate personally supports.
Choosing those Delegates begins with our Primary Election. In Texas, you are not a “Republican” until you vote in our Primary. That vote declares your affiliation and allows you to engage in the rest of the Republican Party process. No one that votes in another Party’s Primary will be eligible to participate.
In Dallas County, the process will begin just as it had in the past. The night of March 1, after the polls close (say around7:30 or so) you will return to your local Precinct Polling location to participate in your local Precinct Convention. There you will elect Delegates to the next level, the Senatorial Convention, and also decide what resolutions you would like to see included in the 2016 Texas GOP Platform. Check the Dallas GOP website as we get closer for your Precinct Convention’s location. http://dallasgop.org
NEW THIS YEAR: Collin County will be holding all Precinct Conventions on Saturday, March 5—the first Saturday after the Primary, NOT ON ELECTION NIGHT as in the past. Each Precinct will meet on March 5 and elect Republicans from their Precinct to represent them at the Senatorial Convention and vote on Platform resolutions. The location of this County-wide event is soon to be announced, so watch the Collin County GOP website more information in the days ahead. www.CollinCountyGOP.org
The next step in the Delegate selection process will be when all Texas Republicans will meet in their Senatorial District Conventions on Saturday, March 19 (this date is uniform across the state, unlike the Precinct Conventions). At this Convention, delegates will elect those who will represent them at the Texas GOP Convention, and also will vote on Resolutions to be forwarded to the State Platform Committee. Watch your local County GOP Website for where your Senatorial Convention will be held. Remember: you must be a voting Delegate (elected from your Precinct Convention) to participate and vote at this Convention or you will be treated as a guest.
The next step is our Texas GOP Convention, which will be held in Dallas May 12-14. Put it on your calendar now. We need Delegates, Alternates (those elected at the Senatorial Conventions) and Volunteers to be a part.
At the State Convention we will elect 3 Delegates and 3 Alternates from each of our 36 Congressional Districts to represent us at the Republican National Convention. The remainder of the Delegates and Alternate spots will be elected “At Large”—except for the 3 automatic Delegate spots that go to our Texas Republican State Chairman, our Republican National Committeeman and our Republican National Committeewoman. Texas will have a total of 155 Delegates and 155 Alternates to send to the Republican National Convention (second only to California’s 172). At our State Convention we will also adopt our 2016 Texas Republican Party Rules and Platform.
Finally, the Republican National Convention will be held in Cleveland Ohio on July 18-21, 2016. This is where Delegates elect our Presidential Candidate and decide our National GOP Platform and Rules. The date of this Convention has been moved up six weeks earlier from the past traditional September Republican National Conventions. This is in order to shorten the calendar gap between the Primary Campaigns and the funds that may be spent only by an officially nominated Presidential Campaign. By the way, the Democrats moved their Convention up too—theirs will be held the following week in Philadelphia.
I know this is old hat for most of you, and I look forward to seeing you at the Conventions. Others I will meet for the first time, and we welcome you to the process. Just one year from now, on Tuesday November 8, 2016, we will all celebrate together our new Republican President’s election. We’ve got a lot to do in the meantime
Now on to victory in 2016!
