On 8 November 2007, the RNC made a determination that Wyoming's Saturday 5 January 2008 caucuses violate Republican Party Rule Number 16. That rule states that the process of selecting National Convention Delegates must not begin before Tuesday 5 February 2008. Wyoming is sanctioned 50% of their delegation hence, the number of delegates is decreased from 28 to 14. The eliminated positions include the 3 automatic delegates (State Chair, National Committeewoman and National Committeeman) and 11 of the at-large delegates chosen at the state convention.
TheGreenPapers.com will be tracking delegate counts as both "Soft" (here assuming that relevant delegations will remain sanctioned into the National Convention [that is: with half the originally allocated delegates to be seated at the Republican National Convention]) and as "Alternative" (here assuming that the full delegation of an affected jurisdiction- as originally allocated before being sanctioned- is eventually to be seated [that is, at some point before the Convention, sanctions will be lifted]) from now until the Party's National Convention convenes or until no delegation is any longer sanctioned, if this should occur prior to the Convention.
Saturday 5 January 2008: The County Conventions choose 12 of 14 (pre-penalty 28) of Wyoming delegates to the Republican National Convention. Approximately 980 County precinct committeemen and women, who were elected in Wyoming's 22 August 2006 (biennial) primary election, are eligible to vote for the National Convention Delegates and Alternates at the County Conventions.
- Wyoming has 23 counties that are grouped into 12 Delegate-Districts. In each Delegate-District, except Laramie, counties are paired: one county selects a delegate while the other selects an alternate. The counties swap positions after each Presidential election.
- Laramie, the county that cast the most votes of any county for the Republican candidate for Congress in the general election immediately preceding the National Convention (Congressman Barbara L. Cubin in 2006), selects both a Delegate and an Alternate.
- The arrangement for 2008 Delegate / Alternate Districts are:
- Albany (Romney) / Natrona (Uncommitted)
- Sweetwater (Romney) / Carbon (Romney)
- Uinta (Romney) / Lincoln (Romney)
- Teton (Romney) / Sublette Platte (McCain)
- Fremont (Romney) / Park (Romney)
- Hot Springs (Thompson) / Washakie (Uncommitted)
- Sheridan Platte (Hunter) / Big Horn (Romney)
- Campbell (Romney) / Johnson (Uncommitted)
- Crook (Thompson) / Weston (Uncommitted)
- Converse (Romney) / Niobrara (Thompson)
- Goshen (Thompson) / Platte (Hunter)
- Laramie [selects both a delegate (Romney) and an alternate (Romney)]
There is no formal system applied in the County Convention to relate the presidential preference of the Convention participants to the choice of either the county's delegates to the State Convention or the delegate(s) to the National Convention the County Convention is helping to choose. The participants at each County Convention alone determine if presidential preference is to be a factor in such choices and, if so, how it is to be applied. All delegates are officially unbound.
- State Party by-laws require that, before the County convention votes are taken, each would-be delegate or alternate must inform the convention of which presidential candidate, if any, they would cast their vote for at the national convention unless released from that pledge by the Presidential candidate.
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