The contentiousness of this years candidate's supporters and some PRO-websites have just muddied the waters of understanding. They're buying into conspiracy theories, repeating unverified rumors, planted false stories in the media and propaganda via fake tweeter accounts, and accusations of vote rigging (which turns out were incompetent ballot instructions issued by the Trump campaign themselves) and show basic lack of knowledge of the delegate selection process, the rules or a political ground game. And the media has the steering wheel and a heavy foot on the peddle.
I had planned my own post, but ran across this below from Kevin Jackson's website, which condenses down what I had to say very well. It is indeed written by a Cruz supporter, but the facts contained are correct (as of yesterday) and easily verifiable.
Keven Jackson
There has been one article after the other in the press how delegates who are pledged to Donald Trump may actually be Ted Cruz supporters. That's because in many states the allocation of delegates is divorced from the actual voting. Say Trump wins 50% of the delegates in South Carolina. The voters do not actually pick the delegates, the South Carolina Republican party does. It picks delegates who promise to vote for Trump on the first ballot. So what many state parties are doing is picking delegates who will vote for Trump on the first ballot, but on the second ballot, when they are free, will vote for Ted Cruz.
This has been explained time and time again by many, so no real news here. Delegates are bound in the first round (this differs for some states).
To recap a bit, the Republican presidential voting process is separate from the delegate selection process in most states. In states like South Carolina and Colorado for instance, most delegates are selected through a series of county, congressional district and state conventions.
We know that Cruz is likely to do well among delegates chosen through state and local conventions because we’ve seen that demonstrated quite a few times already. This is most obvious in the three states — Colorado, Wyoming and North Dakota — where there was no presidential preference vote. Cruz won nine of the 12 delegates chosen at county conventions in Wyoming (Trump won one), and Cruz has gotten six of six picked so far at congressional district conventions in Colorado (more Colorado congressional districts will choose their delegates this week). In North Dakota, delegates are technically unbound, but Cruz got a highly favorable slate of delegates approved at the state convention on Sunday; only one or two delegates of the 25 chosen appear favorably disposed to Trump.
The distinction here is the ground game, and knowing the rules, more so than it should be a condemnation of the GOP.
There are those who say this is a coziness between the GOP, who they say abhors Trump, and Cruz, whom many would say they equally abhor. I disagree. If anything, it’s the GOP’s recognition that one team takes the process seriously, and the other does not.
Cruz has also gotten good results at state and local conventions in states that do hold a presidential preference vote. In fact, considering that relatively few states have completed their convention process, it’s remarkable how many examples you can find of Cruz cleaning Trump’s clock: for example, in Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina and South Dakota.
The magic number is 75%–that’s how many delegates, in total, are selected by state GOP parties, and not the actual candidates or voters themselves. That means that up to 75% of Donald Trump delegates could, theoretically, be Ted Cruz supporters. Even if the real number is 10% or 20%, that’s a lot of delegates, and could be crucial to Cruz on a second or third ballot vote. And it goes without saying that theoretically “uncommitted” delegates are in practice strongly favored to support Cruz, for the same reasons.
The quandary for Trump supporter is this. If Trump is such a good businessman, able to negotiate the best deals and see the fine print, why is he so pathetic in understanding the game of the GOP, rules publicly available to all candidates? Cruz is stoic, stilted, mechanical and perhaps methodical to a fault. In this case, it’s working for him. He’s a detail guy, where Trump flies by the seat of his pants.This is NOT an endorsement of Ted Cruz, as I have chosen not to endorse a candidate (I have problems with both). But unlike some others, I have stated I will support the Republican nominee no matter what, even if I have to hold my nose, and I will abide by my word.