This is just....wrong. If the PEOPLE are to "vote" in who they want as POTUS...how is it a group of other people can say "no, not him/her"? What happened to We The People?
If that happens..whether it is GOP or DEM or whomever....I think there will be another civil war. WE choose. Or we are supposed to, aren't we?
why is that wrong? if he can't get the delegates, that's that.
more wrong than the president losing the popular vote and being appointed by the court?
My question was...IF he gets the delegates...can they (his party) still choose someone else?
So....if Trump wins the primaries, he can still be replaced as winner then by his party, and given to someone else. Right?
Now I am getting all confused.
Sorry. I was typing an explanation of the process for you while I was at work, and then I got stuck on a long call that lasted until time to leave, so I had to abandon it. Lemme try again now that I'm home.
Okay. Forgive me if I cover something you already know, but I don't want to confuse anyone by assuming knowledge not actually possessed.
The Republican Party apportions delegates in a rather complicated fashion. They give 10 "at-large delegates" to each state, and then three delegates to each Congressional district. Places like DC and Puerto Rico get a set number of delegates. With me so far?
On top of this, a state can get "bonus delegates" for having supported the GOP candidate in the previous election, for having a Republican governor, Republican Senators, legislature majorities, and like that. So a deeply red state has more party "oomph" than a blue state does. Also three party leaders from each state serve as delegates.
Now, the states themselves decide if they want to have a winner-take-all contest, or if they want to award delegates according to percentages, who won which districts, whatever. The GOP, however, requires that if a state wants to have a winner-take-all primary, they can't do it before March 15.
Okay, then. A candidate must win 50% +1 delegates to secure the nomination. In this case, that means 1237 delegates out of 2,472. Now, here's the thing. Trump is not winning a majority of votes and/or delegates anywhere. He's winning a plurality. Even if he gets every single delegate available to a candidate winning the state by a plurality, he would still need to win over about 37% of the remaining delegates, and he's only getting about 30% of the votes.
Now, more directly toward where your questions are going, not every delegate is "bound" to vote for the candidate they pledged to prior to the convention. I believe it depends on the state and the type of delegate in question, but like I said, the whole thing's kinda arcane. So it is possible for at least some of the delegates themselves to stage a rebellion against the Trump rebellion, although GOP delegates tend to be reluctant to go maverick that way, because Republican voters are not especially good-natured about that sort of thing.
In answer to your most basic question, I don't believe the party leadership can simply declare, "Screw you, we're appointing this guy as the candidate." They do have to let the delegates vote for the candidate. It's the delegates themselves who have the ability,
in potentia, to flip the bird to the voters.
The other way the party can deny Trump the nomination within its own rules is a brokered convention, if he doesn't win the required number of delegates, and no one else does either. A convention is considered "brokered" if, in the initial delegate vote, no candidate receives the 50% +1 that is required. Brokered basically just means that all the delegates who were previously "bound" to one candidate or another are now free to vote as they please. Then they just keep taking votes until someone gets the required number of delegates. In between votes, supporters of each candidate can try to convince delegates to join them. Basically, it's like a giant caucus of delegates.
Oh, and since I believe you asked this in a separate posts, candidates who drop out do not simply "give" their delegates to whomever they personally choose. What happens to those delegates depends on which state they're from. Each state has different rules on the subject. Some states require the delegates to vote for the candidate they're "bound" to, even if he/she has dropped out, at least on the first ballot. Others essentially declare them "free range" delegates. This is a big part of the reason that exiting candidates typically endorse someone else: in order to nudge their delegates in that direction.
I hope this helps answer the questions you've posed, and also any others that might have come up.
