# Nevada Republican Caucus **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 23, 2016, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919 "2016-02-23T22:46:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/61 "2016-02-24T14:19:38Z")
Surely you’re not saying those people are revolting ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/62 "2016-02-24T14:26:11Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > Can anyone familiar with the delegate rules explain the reports on how the delegates have been awarded? Thirty delegates are available, and the reports I’ve seen assign 12 to Trump and 5 each to Cruz and Rubio with 100% of the vote in. What happened to the other 8 delegates? I had the same question. It looks like 22 delegates are decided based on the election and the others are “party leaders” and “bonus delegates” ([http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/R-Alloc.phtml](http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/R-Alloc.phtml)). What that means, practically speaking, I couldn’t tell you. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/63 "2016-02-24T15:25:18Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > No, he’s driving the insane to turn out. Isn’t democracy grand? ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/64 "2016-02-24T15:37:53Z")
The 30 are straight proportional in Nevada, and the delegate count I’m seeing is: 14 Trump, 7 Rubio, 6 Cruz, 2 Carson, 1 Kasich The RNC determines how many **total** delegates Nevada gets based on a “baseline” that is essentially tied to how many electoral votes a state gets in the electoral college. So you get 5 per Senator (so every State gets 10 base delegates regardless of population) and 3 per congressional district. Then you also get 3 per state for “party leaders”, these delegates are the “national committeeman, the national committee woman, and the chairman of the jurisdiction’s Republican Party.” Note that these are not akin to superdelegates–they are pledged delegates, but they are always those three state party officials. This is largely a mechanism to guarantee these individuals a delegate spot at the convention, I believe a few election cycles ago they were “unpledged” but they’ve been pledged to the state delegate allocation process (in all states) I believe since 2012 at least. So that brings us to 25 for Nevada’s base (10 + (3 x 4) + 3) Then there’s bonus delegates you can accrue, through a formula designed to reward states that support Republicans: 1 Bonus Delegate for each Republican U.S. Senator elected in the state in the last 6 years = 1 bonus for Nevada (Senator Heller) 1 Bonus Delegate for having a Republican Governor elected since 2012 = 1 bonus for Nevada (Governor Sandoval) 1 Bonus Delegate if your U.S. House Delegation is \> 50% Republican, = 1 bonus for Nevada (3/4 Congressmen are GOP) 1 Bonus Delegate for Controlling at least 1 chamber in the state legislature = 1 bonus for Nevada (they control both chambers) 1 Bonus Delegate for Controlling _both_ chambers = 1 bonus for Nevada (they control both chambers) x Bonus based on a mathematical formula based on your electoral vote and what number of them went to a Republican Presidential candidate in 2012 = 0 since NV went for Obama in the electoral college in 2012 Now for how these 30 delegates are apportioned to the candidates, [this](http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/NV-R) site tries to explain it, and they also explain that technically the rules are self-contradictory, so it isn’t (I believe) 100% clear which mechanism is actually being used: > [@](#): > > Rule 1.0 says “National Delegates … shall be allocated proportionally based on the final results … rounded to the nearest whole number” while Subsection 8.1 says “When rounding off numbers in the calculation of the allocation of Delegates, the calculation will be based on the largest remainder method”. Standing Rules 1.0 and 8.1 appear to be contradictory. So to try and sort out these contradictory rules, this site lists the two different ways you could calculate it: > [@](#): > > For those candidates receiving 3.33% or more of the vote: The number of delegates = 30 × (candidate’s popular vote) ÷ (total statewide vote for those candidates exceeding the threshold) rounded to the nearest whole number. If a delegate remains, round up the candidate with the largest remainder (?). Not sure what to do if rounding allocates too many delegates. > > Interpretation B (largest remainder method): > For those candidates receiving 3.33% or more of the vote: The number of delegates = 30 × (candidate’s popular vote) ÷ (total statewide vote for those candidates exceeding the threshold). Award each candidate the whole number of delegates. Beginning with the candidate with the largest remainder, round up to the next whole number. Repeat for the next highest remainder until all delegates are allocated. So note that means there is a minimum 3.33% vote cutoff to get any delegates. FWIW both interpretations produce the same result in this case, but they could’ve produced different ones. They explain the math for Interpretation B here: > [@](#): > > Trump: 30 × 34,531 ÷ 74,878 = 13.835 delegates. Round down to 13 delegates. 17 delegates remain. > Rubio: 30 × 17,940 ÷ 74,878 = 7.188 delegates. Round down to 7 delegates. 10 delegates remain. > Cruz: 30 × 16,079 ÷ 74,878 = 6.442 delegates. Round down to 6 delegates. 4 delegates remain. > Carson: 30 × 3,619 ÷ 74,878 = 1.450 delegates. Round down to 1 delegate. 3 delegates remain. > Kasich: 30 × 2,709 ÷ 74,878 = 1.085 delegates. Round down to 1 delegate. 2 delegates remain. > Trump having the largest remaineder (0.835) receives an additional delegate. 1 delegate remains. > Carson having the largest remaineder (0.450) receives an additional delegate. 0 delegates remain. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/65 "2016-02-24T15:44:40Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > 1 Bonus Delegate for Controlling at least 1 chamber in the state legislature = 1 bonus for Nevada (they control both chambers) > 1 Bonus Delegate for Controlling _both_ chambers = 1 bonus for Nevada (they control both chambers) Seems they could simplify and just say you get 1 delegate for each chamber of the state legislature controlled. The math seems to be quite reasonable and fair the way it is done. Round down for each case and then allocate the extras based on who got rounded down the most. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/66 "2016-02-24T15:54:01Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > [“I have spent my life perplexed about exactly how Hitler could have come to power in Germany. Watching Donald Trump’s rise, I now understand.”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/moment-of-truth-we-must-stop-trump/2016/02/21/0172e788-d8a7-11e5-925f-1d10062cc82d_story.html) From the linked article: > [@](#): > > [Philosopher Hannah] Arendt also offered a second answer in a small but powerful book called “Men in Dark Times.” In this book, she described all those who thought that Hitler’s rise was a terrible thing but chose “internal exile,” or staying invisible and out of the way as their strategy for coping with the situation. They knew evil was evil, but they too facilitated it, by departing from the battlefield out of a sense of hopelessness. I never tire of quoting Kurt Vonnegut’s introduction to his great and disturbing novel _Mother Night_: > [@Kurt Vonnegut](#): > > If I’d been born in Germany, I suppose I would have been a Nazi, bopping Jews and gypsies and Poles around, leaving boots sticking out of snowbanks, warming myself with my secretly virtuous insides. So it goes. “Secretly virtuous insides”. I suppose that describes most of us. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/67 "2016-02-24T15:55:01Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Seems they could simplify and just say you get 1 delegate for each chamber of the state legislature controlled. > > The math seems to be quite reasonable and fair the way it is done. Round down for each case and then allocate the extras based on who got rounded down the most. Yeah, for a proportional system it seems a logical way to apportion delegates. As for the legislative chamber rules, I found it weird too that it isn’t just worded as “1 per each chamber.” I wonder if this was literally done to accommodate Nebraska? Which is the only state with a unicameral legislature? So they could still get 2 bonus points despite only having one chamber. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/68 "2016-02-24T16:30:07Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > Not to mention that the poll workers are wearing [Trump](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/nevada-caucus-problems_us_56cd1530e4b041136f18c090?msi0y66r) [gear](http://www.ijreview.com/2016/02/545084-what-some-nevada-caucus-poll-workers-are-wearing-is-causing-an-uproar/). Which, upon edit, is apparently fine. Nevada is weird. There seems to be controversy about whether or not poll volunteers are supposed to show impartiality. Aren’t there published rules? And it sounds like Trump may have had a well-organized cheating operation. Is that a surprise? Is it good news to those worried Trump is not competent to govern? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/69 "2016-02-24T16:32:27Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > Can anyone familiar with the delegate rules explain the reports on how the delegates have been awarded? [Nevada Republican Caucus Rules:](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craps#Rules_of_play) > [@](#): > > Each round has two phases: “come-out” and “point”. To start a round, the shooter makes one or more “come-out” rolls. A come-out roll of 2, 3 or 12 is called “craps” or “crapping out”, and anyone betting the Pass line loses. A come-out roll of 7 or 11 is a “natural”, and the Pass line wins. The other possible numbers are the point numbers: 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10. If the shooter rolls one of these numbers on the come-out roll, this establishes the “point” - to “pass” or “win”, the point number must be rolled again before a seven. . . . ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/70 "2016-02-24T16:48:18Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > The RNC determines how many **total** delegates Nevada gets based on a “baseline” that is essentially tied to how many electoral votes a state gets in the electoral college. So you get 5 per Senator (so every State gets 10 base delegates regardless of population) and 3 per congressional district. Then you also get 3 per state for “party leaders”, these delegates are the “national committeeman, the national committee woman, and the chairman of the jurisdiction’s Republican Party.” Note that these are not akin to superdelegates–they are pledged delegates, but they are always those three state party officials. This is largely a mechanism to guarantee these individuals a delegate spot at the convention, I believe a few election cycles ago they were “unpledged” but they’ve been pledged to the state delegate allocation process (in all states) I believe since 2012 at least. So that brings us to 25 for Nevada’s base (10 + (3 x 4) + 3) I am under the impression that the three party leaders are unpledged in some states and pledged in others. > [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > Then there’s bonus delegates you can accrue, through a formula designed to reward states that support Republicans: > > 1 Bonus Delegate for each Republican U.S. Senator elected in the state in the last 6 years = 1 bonus for Nevada (Senator Heller) > > x Bonus based on a mathematical formula based on your electoral vote and what number of them went to a Republican Presidential candidate in 2012 = 0 since NV went for Obama in the electoral college in 2012 Note that the bonus for Senators is limited to 2 - it is possible to have more if, for example, both Senators six years ago were Republican, and both were replaced by other Republicans. Also, the “red state bonus” is (4 1/2 + 60% of the state’s Electoral Votes), rounded up. As for distributing delegates, the way I read the rules is, round all delegate numbers down, then if there are delegates remaining, give one each to the candidate(s) with the largest “fraction of a delegate”, except that if a candidate’s unrounded number is less than 1, then that candidate gets zero. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/71 "2016-02-24T16:50:30Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Surely you’re not saying those people are revolting You said it. They stink on ice! ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2016, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/72 "2016-02-24T17:01:55Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > I am under the impression that the three party leaders are unpledged in some states and pledged in others. I think almost all of them they’re pledged, [this](http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/graphics/2016-delegate-tracker/) tracker seems to show Colorado (37), Wyoming (29), Guam (9), American Samoa (9), North Dakota (28) have 100% unpledged delegates (so none of their delegates vote based on a primary or caucus process.) Pennsylvania (54/71) and U.S. Virgin Islands (3/9) have a partial unpledged contingent. So there are 169 total unpledged. > [@](#): > > Note that the bonus for Senators is limited to 2 - it is possible to have more if, for example, both Senators six years ago were Republican, and both were replaced by other Republicans. > > Also, the “red state bonus” is (4 1/2 + 60% of the state’s Electoral Votes), rounded up. > > As for distributing delegates, the way I read the rules is, round all delegate numbers down, then if there are delegates remaining, give one each to the candidate(s) with the largest “fraction of a delegate”, except that if a candidate’s unrounded number is less than 1, then that candidate gets zero. All of this is actually covered in the link in my prior post. ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2016, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/73 "2016-02-26T00:47:31Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > …Then you also get 3 per state for “party leaders”, these delegates are the “national committeeman, the national committee woman, and the chairman of the jurisdiction’s Republican Party.” Note that these are not akin to superdelegates–they are pledged delegates, but they are always those three state party officials. This is largely a mechanism to guarantee these individuals a delegate spot at the convention, I believe a few election cycles ago they were “unpledged” but they’ve been pledged to the state delegate allocation process (in all states) I believe since 2012 at least. … \*snip. So say I am a national committeeman in Nevada. Do I get to vote for my personal choice of candidate or must I vote for whoever I get assigned by the caucus results? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/74 "2016-02-27T18:05:37Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I predict that Trump will not lose another primary and will coast to the GOP nomination. > > I also predict that sales, downloads and online views of [Sinclair Lewis’s _It Can’t Happen Here_](http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301001h.html) will show no significant increase. I just tried to borrow this e-book from my local library. All copies are checked out (they don’t say how many they have), but I’m first in line to get one. We see that so far there’s not a huge groundswell of interest in the book. But prior to this election season I wonder when was the last time somebody checked out an 80(!) year old novel? ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2016, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919/75 "2016-02-27T19:50:29Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > No, he’s driving the insane to turn out. > [@](#): > > A supporter once called out, “Governor Stevenson, all thinking people are for you!” And Adlai Stevenson answered, “That’s not enough. I need a majority.” - Scott Simon, “Music Cues: Adlai Stevenson” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nevada-republican-caucus/746919.md?page=3)