NVGOP.bylaws Pre Meeting Conf Calls Summary March 2015
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Transcript of NVGOP.bylaws Pre Meeting Conf Calls Summary March 2015
Summary of Bylaws Committee Informational Calls
March 14 and 21, 2015
Minor errors will be fixed with a single floor resolution at the beginning of the bylaws discussion and
action to adopt the proposed rules:
1. Resolution 104, Section 1.1 refers to candidates being required to register with the Secretary of
State. Candidates will actually obtain ballot access by paying a filing fee to the NRP as set by the
Executive Committee. There was a suggestion that candidates be required to also submit
petitions containing a set minimum number of signatures of supporters, but there didn’t seem
to be significant support for this idea.
2. Resolution 104, Section 2.2 will be clarified to state that the Secretary of each County Central
Committee will be certifying and communicating the tallies to the state party Secretary.
3. Resolution 104, Section 6.0 will correct the typo on 9:00 am start time to read 7:00 pm. This
item relates to a question to be discussed below on different ideas for dates and times of the
caucus.
4. Resolution 105, Section 2.2 will change the term “legal voting resident” to “qualified elector” to
conform the language with NRS.
Some call attendees indicated that they had sample wording to deal with these issues, and they will
provide that to the bylaws committee for consideration.
Question #1, Amendments Generally: Will any amendments to the rules be posted somewhere for
review prior to the meeting on the 28th?
Answer – They are a work in progress. By their nature, they must be proposed as a motion from the
floor. Parliamentary procedure says we can’t make any changes prior to the meeting to the resolutions
as proposed because the call to meeting and accompanying documentation has already gone out.
The committee will attempt to get the latest proposal on the website a couple of days prior to the
meeting, but there will be additional changes suggested at an open bylaws meeting just before
Saturday, and others will be offering suggested changes even as the meeting is underway. The
committee will do it’s best to make sure that as much information as possible is available in advance.
Question #2, Committee Process generally: Were the 2012 rules reviewed before developing these?
Answer – The proposed 2014 rules are based on the 2012 rules as a starting point, with changes as
needed to address items that were a problem in the 2012 rules. The committee will produce a short
executive summary covering briefly the major changes from 2012.
Question #3, Resolution 104, Section 1.1: How will the ballot access fees for candidates be represented
in the upcoming materials?
Answer ‐ Details, such as deadline for filing, are being worked out and will be addressed in the floor
resolution. The RNC is currently collecting information from all states on ballot access fees, and the
Executive Committee will use this information to determine if the $10,000 ballot access fee charged in
2012 needs to be adjusted.
Question #4, Resolution 104, Sections 1.2 and 4.4: It was pointed out that the wording “Any ballot cast
for more than one candidate shall be declared invalid” in R‐104, Section 1.2 is repeated in Section 4.4
Answer – This may not be a duplication, as Section 1.2 refers to ballots cast in person at a precinct
meeting, and Section 4.4 refers to absentee ballots. Even if the central committee ultimately decided
that it was a duplication, the preference is to leave it as is until the next revision to avoid spending time
discussing changes that don’t affect the integrity of the rules.
Question #5, Resolution 104, Section 2.1: Two emails prior to the meeting expressed concern over the
lack of a centralized recount of the ballots.
Answer – The major lesson learned from the 2012 caucus was that the recount caused more problems
than it solved. Ballot security isn’t an issue with a precinct count, because each precinct maintains
uninterrupted control of the ballots, witnessed by the participants themselves. Accuracy of reporting is
assured by posting all precinct results publicly, and each participant can make sure that their precinct
was recorded correctly. Vote fraud in this case requires a massive conspiracy involving hundreds or
thousands of conspirators.
Regrettably, there are still charges of vote tampering during the 2012 recounts, as well as allegations of
ballot box tampering while ballots were being moved from precincts to central count locations. Making
the official vote the one from the precinct meeting, will eliminate such incidents and the accompanying
accusations of wide spread fraud. It will also insure that results are reported in a timely manner, rather
than repeating the embarrassing delays we experienced in 2012 when results weren’t available for days
after the caucus, a delay caused solely by the central recount.
Despite the problems caused by the recount, no significant errors were uncovered during the central
recounts that would have changed the results. Even in the largest counties, a large precinct rarely has
much over 100 attendees, making precinct level counts very manageable. A question was raised about
the ability of the Secretary of a county party to certify results that they had not witnessed. Vice Chair
DeGraffenreid explained from his perspective as the state party Secretary in 2012 that the certification
is that the counts were recorded correctly from the precincts; not that the Secretary has personally seen
all of the counts – it is impossible for one person to witness all the counts. Counties are free to
implement whatever controls they feel are needed to insure the accuracy of reporting; in 2012, the
state party required reporting in writing to eliminate misunderstood numbers – either fax, electronic
online entry, or email, whichever the county party preferred.
Question #6, Resolution 104, Section 2.2: Does the requirement for each county to report results by
midnight the following day include the preference poll leaving counties to wait up to two days for the
results?
Answer – Because the results being reported are those of the Presidential Preference Poll, this wording
does allow a county technically just over 24 hours in the event there is some emergency or failure of
communication to report their numbers. However, the language reads “immediately following the Poll,
but in no event later than…”, meaning that in the absence of some emergency, the results are
anticipated to be received the same evening as the PPP. Different precinct meetings will end at different
times, of course, but most results should be in by midnight on the day of the PPP. Campaigns, the
media, and all Nevada Republicans will be anxious to receive the results, so the expectation is that the
counties and the state party will work together diligently to consolidate the precinct votes into final
totals.
Question #7, Resolution 104, Section 3: Concern was raised that not allowing counties to bind their
delegates at county conventions allowed one group to take over the precinct meetings, and then the
county and state conventions and ultimately the national delegation.
Answer – The language in this section is exactly the same as 2012. It’s a basic practical issue, because
not all the people who are delegates to a county convention will be delegates to the state convention. A
much smaller percentage of state convention delegates will become national delegates, so it becomes
impractical to start trying to determine who the 30 or so national delegates will ultimately be all the way
back at a county convention. The primary issue is which presidential candidate will receive the votes as
they earned them in the PPP as opposed to who the individual delegates are who will carry those votes.
It was also mentioned that if a delegate was bound to a candidate at the county convention, and their
candidate subsequently drops out of the race, that delegate has lost the opportunity to advance in the
process. Resolution R‐105 and RNC rules are clear that national delegates will be bound based on the
results of the PPP, and that even if the delegation chairman misrepresents Nevada’s vote, it will be
recorded correctly as mandated by the results of the PPP.
Question #8, Resolution 104, Section 4: How do counties obtain a list of military personnel and their
dependents in order to comply with this section?
Answer – The bylaws committee responded that there is no central repository of this information. This
year, as in all years, it is the responsibility of military personnel and their voting family members to
contact their local county parties for an absentee ballot for the caucus. Carolyn Howell of Carson City
indicated that some counties could get military voter info by contacting the local county clerk. Many
clerks have email addresses for deployed military.
Question #9, Resolution 104, Section 4, and caucus expenses generally: Who will pay for the absentee
ballots used by the county parties as specified in this section? The cost for the caucus should be the
burden of the state party, not individual counties. He would also like to see all the monies deposited
from candidates, from national or other sources, to be proportionately distributed with the counties
since we’re the ones that do all the work and we’re the ones that have to put these things on. Unlike
the counties only got a portion of what was made by the sale of the contact information and that was it.
And those of us who would not release the contact information, had worked for six months to put this
on. We footed all the costs except a few items so we’d like to see the costs distributed more to the
counties as well as our state party.
Additional comment – The expenses of the caucus should be paid by the state party, not individual
counties. All the funds raised from candidates should be proportionately distributed to the counties
since the counties do all the work. In 2012, none of the ballot access fees were shared with the counties.
The state party made donations to counties from the state party’s funds if the counties provided contact
information to be used in 2016, but counties that refused to share this information covered all their own
costs except a few items
Answer – In his capacity as Interim Budget Chair, Rob Tyree indicated that the budget that was
presented to the Executive Committee on March 11th, and to the county chairs on March 18th, was
specifically designed to address this issue.
The proposed budget, which will require approval of the NRCC at the meeting on the 28th, reflects a
$50,000 expense item, substantially all of which is intended to be revenue shared with the counties to
help offset most, if not all, of their costs related to the caucus/presidential preference poll.
NRS 293.135 requires each county party to hold precinct meetings in every even numbered year,
regardless of whether Nevada is a primary or caucus state, and regardless of whether our presidential
preference process is controlled by the parties or by the state of Nevada. In non‐presidential years, the
county central committees bear the cost of running their own precinct meetings. Since we have the
addition of caucus and preference poll in this general election year, the state party is endeavoring, via
ballot access fees, to collect enough revenue to distribute amongst the county central committees to
help them offset most, if not all, of their costs. Some counties will have higher costs so we’re still
working on an equitable way to divide up those resources. The state Executive Board recognizes that
this is a team effort, and has recommended a budget that will distribute revenue to the counties. If
anyone has budget specific questions you can email me at [email protected]
Jim DeGraffenreid added that he was first elected to the state Executive Board in October of 2011, prior
to the 2012 caucus. The new officers elected inherited a consulting contract that diverted all of the
ballot access fees to pay the out of state consultants. We also found that those who had operated the
2008 caucus had not kept track of the 2008 attendee information, so this source of revenue was
unavailable for 2012. The existing contract and plans already in place made it difficult to manage the
caucus appropriately. For 2016, we’ve recognized these past mistakes , and there’s no reason that the
ballot access fees in 2016 cannot be used to actually cover the expenses of the caucus, rather than
paying out of state consultants who provided no benefit to the party in return.
Question #10, Resolution 104, Section 5: Is the wording in this section requiring photo identification the
same as 2012, and is it legal to require photo identification?
Answer – The Bylaws Committee response was that it is almost exactly the same as 2012’s Section 6
with slight rewording. It is legal because the caucus is an internal party procedure, not a state operated
election. It also supports our party platform to have photo ID requirements to vote. Carolyn Howell
from Carson City advised that they had no difficulty complying with the 2012 rules, and they strongly
support keeping this provision for 2014.
There was a further question about how counties could verify that a voter was eligible to participate in
the precinct meetings/PPP. Various suggestions had been made of how to get lists of eligible voters into
the hands of the counties, what cutoff date to use, and what procedures to follow to allow those who
have registered in the party after the cutoff date to participate on a provisional basis. (NRS 293.137
states, “The meeting must be conducted openly and publicly and in such a manner that it is freely
accessible to any registered voter of the party calling the meeting who resides in the precinct and is
desirous of attending the meeting, until the meeting is adjourned.”)
Jim DeGraffenreid reminded the group that these rules and laws for precinct meetings have been in
place for many years, and that counties currently obtain voter registration lists, either on their own or
with the assistance of the state party. Each county also already has procedures in place for handling late
registrants and provisional voters. The voter ID requirement doesn’t invalidate or require any changes to
these longstanding procedures – it simply means that the precinct meeting staff will confirm visually
that the person checking in is who they say they are.
Question #11, Resolution 104, Section 6: Why was the caucus date moved to a weeknight, and how was
the specific date of the fourth Tuesday in February selected?
Answer – Jim DeGraffenreid gave the history of this decision for 2016. In 2012, four early “carve out”
states (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Nevada) were allowed by RNC rules to schedule
presidential preference events before the March 1 deadline that applied to all other states. Larger
states, like Florida and others, decided they were going to move ahead of the carve out states in an
attempt to have more of a voice in the process, even though by doing so they would lose half of their
delegates to the National Convention. That led to confusion and constant changing of dates by the four
early states in order to protect their status. The confusion was embarrassing for both the states involved
and Republicans in general.
Determined to avoid a repeat of 2012, the RNC decided to set a firm schedule early for 2016, and at the
end of last summer, the Chairman of the RNC Rules Committee, Bruce Ash from Arizona, reached out to
the early states thru a series of conference calls where the early dates were determined. The goal was
to fit all four states within the month of February, with enough time in between each contest to allow
the candidates to travel from state to state and campaign.
By tradition, Iowa holds the first caucus in the nation, and New Hampshire holds the first primary. Iowa
selected a caucus date of February 2nd for Republicans (Feb 1st for Democrats) and New Hampshire
selected February 9th for their primary. South Carolina preferred February 20th for their primary, and
Nevada picked the 23rd. Saturday the 27th was not good for anybody because eight states, including
Texas and Virginia, planned to hold their contests on “Super Tuesday”, March 1, and nobody wanted to
be within four days of eight competing primary elections. Alternative dates available to Nevada were
Saturday the 13th or Tuesday the 16th. These days fall on or immediately after the long President’s Day
weekend, which also includes Valentine’s Day, so it was felt that turnout could be depressed if we used
those dates. When all factors are taken into account, the 23rd made the most sense in terms of getting
candidates to Nevada, being able to host events and get them in front of voters.
Question #12, Resolution 104, Section 6: There are two additional concerns with the day and time:
1. Rural counties typically use schools for the caucus, primarily because there are no other facilities
in our counties that are large enough to facilitate our needs. Tuesday night means potential
conflict with events such as basketball playoffs.
2. The second concern was that Tuesday evening from 7 to 9 would have much lower turnout than
a Saturday event.
Answer – A suggestion for dealing with sports conflicts is to utilize elementary and middle schools rather
than high schools because they typically don’t have athletic scheduling problems in the evening, and
tend to be closer to neighborhoods as well. Fire stations and other government buildings are also often
good locations.
NRS 293.134 specifies that these spaces must be made available to central committees without charge
for precinct meetings: “Upon application by a state or county central committee, if a room or space is
available in a building that is open to the general public and occupied by the government of this State or
a political subdivision of this State or an agency thereof, the public officer or employee in control of the
room or space shall grant the use of the room or space to the state or county central committee without
charge in a presidential election year for any purpose, including conducting precinct meetings.”
The committee will look into potential options, as well as the pros and cons, of an extended voting
period in advance of the caucus meetings. The bylaws committee will make a recommendation and
present options. Of course, any NRCC member is free to make a motion to amend from the floor.
Question #13, Resolution 104, Section 7: What happens if AB302 in the 2015 Legislature passes,
returning the Presidential Preference Poll to being included in the state run primary?
Answer – This section provides for that eventuality, so that if the legislation is passed, it will not require
any change to our rules.
There was commentary that some counties preferred to hold a primary instead of a caucus. Carson City
in particular held a primary instead of a caucus in 2012, and had a greater turnout than other counties in
the state as a result. Carolyn Howell from Carson City indicated that she believes a majority of
Republicans are unhappy with the caucus process, and that if we don’t give them more opportunity to
vote, they will never want to be active participants in the party.
Jim DeGraffenreid indicated that there was no issue if all counties agreed that we should hold a primary
instead of a caucus; the only problem occurs when each county is doing something different. No state in
the nation, whether caucus or primary, allows for completely different processes in different counties.
If a state holds a primary, it’s at the same start and end time statewide.
The same applies to caucuses. Iowa holds 1700+ caucus/precinct meetings on a Tuesday night, and they
all start at the same time. If a county does their balloting at an earlier time than another, there are
ballot security risks as voters run the risk of knowing early results before polling is closed in their county.
If some counties hold longer voting periods than others, then the voters with more time to vote will
have a disproportional voice in the process, while some voters with a shorter voting window may be
disenfranchised. There are problems with reporting results and with the media if counties are doing
different things – Nevada needs to report it’s choices as a unified voice.
There are no issues with the party holding a primary instead of a caucus if that’s what 17 counties agree
to do, but it is essential that all counties agree to the process, and it must work for every county from
Clark to Esmeralda. The critical point is that the party needs to run the primary, rather than giving it
back to the state to operate. As proposed, the state’s primary violates RNC rules, and would require that
Nevada give up half of our delegates to the national convention.
Even if that date is moved to a compliant date in February, because the entire primary would be held
then for all federal, state and local offices, all candidates and campaigns will be doing the bulk of their
campaigning in the holiday season, when we’d all like to be concentrating on family and not politics.
Finally, having the state run the primary eliminates any ability to raise funds for the operation of state
and county parties relative to the Presidential Preference Poll.
Rob Tyree added that as the Interim Budget Chair, he’s forced into the position of pinching every penny
and finding revenue sources to fund state party expenses and also have an effective political operation
heading into 2016. One of the substantial sources of revenue, especially in presidential election years, is
voter data. Participant data from the PPP is valuable because these individuals are more likely to vote,
to donate, and they are a very effective volunteer pool because they’re more apt to take an active role
in politics. If we return the responsibility to the state to operate a publicly funded primary system, we
don’t own that voter data, and we lose the revenue opportunity.
Rob pointed out the ballot security advantage of holding the vote in the precinct meetings, where
participants are encouraged to take a cell phone picture of the tally sheet and then compare that with
the results that are reported on the website. It’s the ultimate form of ballot security.
If the state party operates a primary from 7am‐7pm, we’ll get more data and more participation,
although it will increase costs to operate a longer voting window.
Jordan Ross indicated that if the precinct meeting and a primary are held without the caucus, we lose
the ability for people speak on behalf of candidates. Those people aren’t able to speak to all the people
casting votes, which is the advantage of the caucus system.
Jordan also expressed concern over losing the gains the party has made in volunteers and membership
since the caucus was instituted in 2008. Prior to that time, Clark County typically hadn’t had more than
300‐400 who attended County Conventions, and those individuals became the county central
committee. But in 2008, there were 3,600 attendees at the county convention, and Clark County ended
up with a central committee of 800‐900. The caucus increased party participation, and increased the
diversity of the party, both ideologically and demographically.
Finally, Rob Tyree pointed out that in Clark and Washoe, maybe to a lesser degree in rural counties, the
county convention is often the largest source of revenue during a presidential year. The potential
revenue for the counties is significant, and county parties have a vested financial interest in increasing
participation at the precinct meetings and county conventions.
Some attendees were surprised to learn that county conventions could be a source of revenue. Clark
County indicated that they had earned $20,000 from their 2014 convention, and it was suggested that
counties reach out to others to see how this money is raised. Jim DeGraffenreid will work with Peggy
Gray to develop a survey for all the county chairs to complete at the meeting, and this information will
be shared among all the county chairs.
Question #14, Resolution 105, generally: Is it legal for the party to require a delegate to be bound, or
are they free to vote as they wish?
Answer – The bylaws committee responded that this question took up more time on the bylaws
committee than any other, and will surely be discussed thoroughly on the floor as well. There are a
variety of divergent opinions on the committee. We've received a lot of calls and even had a
conversation with a National Committeeman from North Dakota who's been involved in this issue for a
number of years. There are a couple of issues to consider:
1. The rules of the Republican National Committee have provisions that are conflicting and
confusing. For example, the committee was looking for guidance on whether or not each state's
delegation had the right to elect their own chair or not, and after great difficulty found that rule
buried in an unrelated section.
2. Although the specific issue regarding binding appears to have conflicts, from all the evidence
gathered as well as both parliamentary and legal advice, the committee concluded that even
though there are some questions, there is a requirement for binding on the first vote. There is a
body of thought that says the first section of RNC rules are essentially for preparation of the
convention, and because a particular clause quotes the second half as being the rules on the
floor, that the binding requirement is not valid once the convention opens. The committee
rejected this argument as being a tortured interpretation due to the fact that if the intent of
RNC rules was to not allow binding, then the binding rules contained in RNC Rule 16 would not
appear at all.
There is significant dispute over whether national rules were adopted legally. Regardless of whether that
is true or not, the rules have been adopted, and must be complied with until such time as they are
changed either through legal action or grassroots activism. Based on all of the facts and a complete
assessment of the situation, it’s clear that binding is required on the first vote.
Question #15, Resolution 105, Section 5: What happens if a presidential candidate drops out?
Answer – Under the proposed rules in this section, dealing with the binding and release of National
Delegates and Alternates, delegates will not be reallocated to the remaining candidates in the race on a
proportional basis. This is a significant change from past practice, and from the 2012 rules. After
extensive debate, the committee agreed that reallocation doesn’t necessarily accomplish what the
voters in the caucuses wanted, and it also assigns delegates to candidates who didn’t earn them. There
was also a concern that reallocation favors well‐funded candidates who may have the ability to gain
additional delegates by forcing underfunded candidates out of the race.
The final committee recommendation is to release delegates whose candidate drops out. This mirrors
the real world situation where a voter has to decide who to support when their candidate leaves the
race and they need to support someone still in the race, and it leads to traditional convention activity
where delegates and candidates work to convince unbound delegates to support their cause. A majority
consensus of the committee felt that if a candidate earned, say, 40% of the caucus vote, then that
candidate should receive 40% of the delegation vote on the first ballot. The committee was unanimous
in insisting that the will of the caucus voter be expressed, although there was a difference of opinion on
the best way to do that.
Rob Tyree provided additional background on the process used by the committee to develop this rule.
There was extensive debate and a lot of research into RNC rules, stipulations and provisions, including
much discussion of RNC Rule 38, the Unit Rule. This is a rule which is often cited as preventing the
binding of delegates as described in RNC Rule 16
As an early caucus state, Nevada has the opportunity to choose from more candidates than later
caucuses and primaries because inevitably some candidates will leave the race. As a result, we have the
opportunity to be more ideologically driven with our vote, as there are more candidates with subtle
differences available to choose from. Compared to states later in the process, we have the ability to
support a candidate who more completely represents our particular philosophy, policy views, etc. As an
early state, we have a greater influence on deciding the eventual presumptive nominee.
The downside to having this influence is that someone might vote for a candidate in the preference poll,
and the next week that candidate drops out. That voter is forced into a position where they're
reevaluating their options to see who among the remaining candidates most closely matches their views
now that their first choice is off the table. Forcing, reapportioning, or rebinding delegates to a candidate
who may be a polar opposite of who the voter originally supported based on preference poll
percentages of the remaining candidates doesn't seem fair. If the dropped candidate had not been on
the ballot at all, there’s no way to know how that would have affected the remaining candidates.
Unfortunately, it's not possible to hold a second preference poll right before the national convention, so
the committee recommended the compromise in Section 5. The concept is that if a candidate makes it
all the way through the process and is still an active candidate at the time of the national convention,
the delegates they earned in our preference poll should absolutely be bound to them. They earned that
support. We owe it to them to send those delegates in support of them, and we owe it to the Nevada
voters who came out and gave them their support in return for their effort in our state.
However, the candidates who didn't make it through the entire process are a different situation.
Historically, we've seen a few things happen. Some of them will drop out, suspend their campaign and
often make an announcement releasing their delegates or letting their delegates know they’re free to
do what they want. On the other hand, we had at least one incident in 2012 where a campaign was
suspended but insisted till the end that they wanted their delegates to be bound to them, even though
their campaign was suspended. This was a problem we discovered in the 2012 rules, and which the
recommended rules are designed to rectify.
When we set about creating this compromise we weighed three things:
1. Respecting the will of the caucus voters.
2. Respecting the campaigns and candidates who come here and spend time, money and resources
campaigning here.
3. Respecting the process in that we don’t want to completely release delegates or allow them to
do whatever they want, because we have to make sure that the first two points are addressed.
Resolution 105 is the best compromise that the committee could devise. It allows for candidates to
request their delegates and continue to be bound whether they’re an active candidate or not. It allows
for delegates of candidates who don’t make that request to be released to do as they see fit, which is
how we pay respect to the caucus voters. These delegates will go through the same process the caucus
voters would have, assessing which candidate is their next option.
The committee spent a ton of time talking and thinking about and debating this issue. No one on the
committee got everything they originally wanted, but what we ended up with was a really good
compromise that accounts for as many contingencies as possible. Ultimately, we were all able to agree
and pass these rules unanimously out of committee, to the Executive Committee and on to the
membership of the NRCC for ratification.
Question #16, Resolution 105, Delegate Binding generally: Regarding electing delegates at the state
convention, how do we ensure that delegates are true supporters of the candidate that they are elected
to support?
Additional commentary: In 2012, people self‐nominated on the day of the convention to become
delegates and we knew nothing about them. It’s important to know which candidates potential national
delegates support so that we know they’ll respect the wishes of caucus voters.
Answer – The recommended rules address this issue in a number of ways. Section 2.1 eliminates the
ability to self‐nominate from the floor, and requires instead that all potential national delegates must
submit a self‐nomination form no later than 10 days prior to the state convention. The state party
Secretary is required in Section 2.4 to notify each delegate of who has been nominated no less than 5
days prior to the convention.
During this time, state convention delegates can read statements from those seeking to be national
delegates. “My name is… I want to represent candidate John Doe. Here is why. Here’s what I think.
Here’s my opinions on political ideology.” Delegates can speak with nominees personally, and contact
those that you know in a nominee’s county of residence for information and recommendations. You can
talk to them personally. As with electing anybody, voters have a responsibility to learn as much as
possible about those they will be electing, and the advance nomination is designed to make that
possible.
Jim DeGraffenreid added that the rules could be clarified to require some type of bio or statement by
those running to be national delegate. Any serious candidate will do this anyway, but we can build it into
the rules. We all know someone that runs for office saying one thing and then does another, and sadly
that is a fact of life in politics. However, since 2012, rules have been put in place at the RNC, and echoed
in Sections 2.6 and Section 6 of the proposed rules, that provide severe penalties for faithless delegates.
These penalty sections in reality deal with the problem as much as it can be. The ability to disrespect
the caucus results has been reduced significantly.
Finally, RNC Rule 16 (a) (2) specifies that if a bound delegate does not vote in accordance with their
binding, their vote shall be disregarded. Even in the unlikely event that the stricter 2016 rules allow a
faithless delegate to survive the process, Nevada’s vote will be cast as directed by the caucus, no matter
what.
Jordan Ross clarified that the weak link is in fact the delegation chair. This is something that regrettably
I wasn’t aware of when I drafted the rules for 2012. Under RNC Rules 37 and 40, the votes for the
delegation are cast on their behalf solely by the delegation chair. In 2012, our delegation chair
disregarded the rules and cast votes that broke bindings. Section 6.4 provides very stiff penalties for any
future convention chair who would do the same, essentially ending their ability to ever participate at
the state or national level representing Nevada again.
Rob Tyree added that the current procedures preclude someone who is bound from even having an
opportunity to break their binding. Under Section 6.2, the delegation chairman will tally votes for
delegates who are bound at the time of the first vote at the national convention without polling that
delegate. The only delegates who actually get polled to place a vote on the first vote are any who are
unbound, and the only way that happens is if their candidate has dropped out and released their
delegates. We have essentially precluded a bound delegate from breaking their binding. As Jim
mentioned, if by some chance they found a way to circumnavigate our rules and break binding, they
would be ineligible by the RNC rules and that vote wouldn’t count anyway. The only person who can
have an impact is the delegate chair who reports the votes, and we have basically built into our rules as
close to a political death penalty as we could.
Question 17, Bylaws Change Article 15: Concern was expressed over the reference to Clark County
Court Case #A269546, which is a current feature of both the state party and the Clark County bylaws, as
nobody seems to be able to locate documentation on what the subject of this case was.
Jim DeGraffenreid indicated that this language was unnecessary, since we were specifying that violation
of any election law was grounds to consider termination, so he would be moving from the floor that the
language on this specific court case be stricken from the final resolution.
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