[EL] GOP contest: 215 voters in Guam pick 9 Romney delegates /Winner-take-all in Puerto Rico

[Rob Richie]

The territories are starting to weigh in during the Republican nomination
contest, with 215 Republicans in Guam gathering to give all nine of the
territory's delegates likely to go to Mitt Romney. See:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/09/romney-wins-gop-caucus-in-us-territory-guam/


Consider tha news compared tot all the fuss in Iowa over a total of 27
delegates and in New Hampshire awarding a total of12 delegates.

I'm all for Americans being able to participate meaningfully in our
democracy and cast meaningful votes no matter where they live, but that's
quite a contrast in participant per delegate. Looking ahead, note
that Puerto Rico is holding a primary on March 18, in which the winner of
the island-wide vote will win all delegates -- in blatant violation of the
RNC rules. I've yet to hear an explanation of why the RNC is allowing this
violation of its rules to occur without reducing Puerto Rico's delegates --
seemingly inviting yet another challenge at the convention, just as will
happen to Florida and Arizona delegates if the contest stays close.

As a related aside, Rick linked to FairVote's analysis this week of the
contests to date and how delegates have been allocated. That overall
allocation is far closer to what would have happened if all contests had
been winner-take-all rather than if all contests had been proportional. See:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rob-richie/republican-primary_b_1333300.html

- Rob


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