Here is the Politico link to the results of major party presidential primary and caucus results for all states that have voted so far. The states that voted on March 22 are Arizona, Idaho, and Utah. Unfortunately the Politico map doesn’t include the territories. American Samoa also held its Republican caucus on March 22.
Associated Press says the Republican delegate count for the three leading candidates who are still running is: Trump 739, Cruz 465, Kasich 143.
The National Archives’ web page has this compendium of state laws on punishment for presidential electors who cast a vote in the Electoral College in December for someone other than the candidates they were pledged to.
The list of states says there are three state laws that say electors who vote “disobediently” shall be deemed to have resigned and will be replaced by the remaining electors. The list says these states are Michigan, North Carolina, and South Carolina. However, the South Carolina law does not actually say that, and furthermore the South Carolina law says the state chair of the political party involved may absolve a disobedient elector if the state chair believes that the elector’s behavior was beneficial.
For Michigan and North Carolina, the law saying that a disobedient elector automatically resigns, and will be replaced by the other electors, would not function effectively if all of the electors from that state disobeyed; there would be no one to replace them. Thanks to Jerrick Adams of Ballotpedia for the link.
The issue of the identity of the Virgin Islands’ delegates to the Republican national convention continues. The caucus winners had been challenged on two independent grounds. First, on whether they had lived in the Virgin Islands long enough to be eligible; second, whether they disqualified themselves when they didn’t accept their election within five days of the caucus.
The newcomers won in court on the duration of residency issue. The law does have a 90-day residency requirement for “territorial elections”, but a Virgin Islands court recently ruled that law does not apply to presidential caucuses.
Still to be settled is whether the newcomers should be disqualified because they didn’t accept their election in writing within five days of the caucus. The chair of the party interpreted the five-day period to start on the day of the caucus. But this is disputed by other party officers, who say the five day-period starts on the day when the candidates are certified as the winners. See this story.
The newcomers are all unpledged to any particular presidential candidates, and say that an uncommitted delegation will bring some measure of influence to the Virgin Islands, given the unpredictability of the upcoming Republican presidential process.
RHode Island political activists and politicians weigh on on Bob Healey, who died March 20. Healey was founder of the Cool Moose Party, the most successful third party in Rhode Island in the last 90 years. He also got a higher share of the vote in 2014 for Governor, as the Moderate Party nominee, than any other minor party gubernatorial candidate that year. Thanks to Timothy McKee for the link.
On March 22, attorneys for Montana state government filed this brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Ravalli County Republican Central Committee v McCulloch, 15A911. The issue is whether the Republican Party of Montana has a freedom of association right to avoid the June 7, 2016 open primary. The party complains that the open primary allows Democrats to vote in the Republican primary. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy had asked for this filing, and is pondering whether to order that the June 2016 primary process be altered in some undetermined way.
