Despite all the noise from both sides of the debate, when you run the numbers, it turns out that Donald Trump could win the nomination on the first ballot precisely because of the GOP’s delegate rules. Ted Cruz also benefits, but not until later ballots. The losers? John Kasich and all the other candidates, and their supporters. If you accept the premise that one-person/one-vote is the only valid way to choose the Republican nominee, than the delegate selection process breaks that ideal in two significant ways, one that helps Trump, one that hurts. How could the rules actually help Trump? The winner-take-all and winner-take-most provisions that many state parties adopted help Trump. For example, Trump won big in his home state of New York with 60% of the vote. But he got 96% of the delegates. While Kasich got 100% of the delegates from his home state win, Cruz’ comfortable home state victory only got him 67% of those delegates. Combine all three home states, and Trump comes out on top with a bonus of 25 more delegates than he
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