Donald Trump has complained that the Republican primary process is a “rigged, disgusting, dirty system” that deprives people of the chance to vote for their preferred presidential candidate. He accuses the Republican Party of stealing delegates from him. If he thinks this system is complex, Trump should look to the GOP’s past primary elections. Now, those were complicated! As recently as 2012, for example, some states used a three-step voting process that often yielded two opposing outcomes. But the Republican National Committee worked with state parties to streamline and standardize the 2016 election to minimize confusing results. Some complexity remains because each of the 50 states can set its own rules. As the founding fathers devised, U.S. presidential elections are not national races. Rather, they occur state by state, which inevitably creates some complexity. But there are clear and now simpler rules. Candidates just need to read them.
This year, for the first time, the Republican National Lawyers Association is helping presidential candidates get on the ballot in every state. In earlier elections, individual candidates were responsible for finding out each state’s requirements, and then had to meet 50 different deadlines. In the 2012 presidential race, for example, Texas Governor Rick Perry and four other candidates did not secure enough signatures to gain ballot access in Virginia, a critical state with 49 delegates.
The GOP lawyers group has given every candidate its Ballot Access Initiative booklet, which explains the rules in each state. The national party is trying to help all candidates save both time and money.
The Republican National Committee also published an official guide last October. It explains each state’s system of selecting delegates to the Republican National Convention — which also vary. The committee even changed some archaic party rules to further streamline the campaigns.
Full Article: GOP nomination process 101: Candidates’ remedial edition.