[EL] GOP primaries and examples of how rules matter: proportional allocation / plurality voting

[Rob Richie]

Folks,

I thought listserv members might be interested in a couple recent items
excerpted below, with links.

The first one involves split votes within the Republican field and the role
of plurality voting, possible to do because of how Public Policy Policy
does ranked choice polling. Note that just his week the Utah Republican
Party in Davis County field a state senate vacancy with instant runoff
voting rather than plurality voting. See
http://www.davis-gop.com/files/4113/2632/1724/2012_S23-IRV_Sen_23_Special_Election_final_results.pdf

- Rob Richie

###

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/01/three-way-tie-with-nc-republicans.html
[Public Policy Polling News news release]

...The North Carolina numbers are really indicative of the fact that Romney
probably can't be stopped unless some more of the candidates drop out.  If
they had to choose just between Romney and Santorum, Santorum wins 51-33.
That's because Gingrich voters prefer Santorum 67-27 and Perry voters do by
a 59-35 margin.  If Gingrich and Perry left the race Santorum would really
get some momentum in states like North and South Carolina. But as long as
they're splitting the anti-Romney vote three ways it puts Romney in a very
good position to just keep on winning.


http://www.fairvote.org/gop-primaries-proportional-representation-nh#.Tw8fkqVAZmg

FairVote Tracks GOP Primaries: Understanding Proportional Representation in
NH
by FairVote <http://www.fairvote.org/list/author/_FairVote> // Published
January 12, 201
 Mitt Romney won 39% of the vote in New Hampshire in the nation's first
2012 primary and received seven of the state's twelve delegates, or a 58%
share. An in-depth look into New Hampshire's voting method allows us to see
how a disproportionate delegate distribution arises from the proportional
system utilized by the New Hampshire Republican Party.

The *Rules of the Republican Party* Rule 15(b)(2) dictates that contests
prior to April 1 must be conducted according to proportional allocation but
does not specify by what means. This allows states to differ
wildly<http://global.nationalreview.com/dest/2011/12/23/2012_RNC_Delegate_Summary_32b0d429d50bfaf71e86b156401b5f04.pdf>
in
their interpretation of "proportional." As written about in FairVote's blog
on January 10 <http://www.fairvote.org/new-blogentry-21#.Tw2pZpgujww>, New
Hampshire's Republican Party chose to allocate its delegates proportionally
based on a 10% threshold....

[Goes on to explain how NH does proportional representation and how
variations would have worked. Ends with these unrelated NH tidbits about
Romney 2012 vs. Romney 2008, Obama's vote total and more]



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Rob Richie
Executive Director

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