National Prez Conventions – moot for Washington delegates?

[FreeRangeAuthor]

I haven’t watched (or heard) any Party National Prez Convention in more than 20 years.

Of those I recall seeing, in my youth, it appeared that voting from the floor occurred in alphabetical order by State name. I also recall that long before the alphabet got around to Washington, enough delegates had voted to select a nominee (50% + 1), so that the Convention rules were suspended and the remaining States voted by acclamation, since the winner already had enough votes. Voting by the remaining States would not change the outcome, so acclamation was used.

If this is common at most Conventions, it seems to make Washington delegates, for both Parties, moot – they never get tallied individually. Even with a second or third ballot, the counting my not reach the States at the end of the alphabet before enough votes are accumulated, and acclamation used for the remaining States.

Can anyone cite any National Convention, for either Party, where Washington delegates changed the outcome of the vote?

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[Ken]

No Cite. But delegate counts are known long before the convention in most cases. The last nearly brokered convention was in 1976 Republican convention where delegates shifted away from Reagan over to Ford. On the Dem side I think it was Carter and Kennedy.

In both cases WA delegates had the same power as any other delegates and super-delegates can often change their commitments in the middle of the primary/caucus season.

Delegate count is mostly a PR value if a clear nominee emerges, and life and death importance if one does not.

So, the answer is,

It depends.

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[Author]

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