The "carve-out" states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada (designated with a ‡) may begin their process on 1 February 2016. All other states must wait until Tuesday 1 March 2016.

The Republican jurisdictions are listed below in chronological order according to their first major delegate selection event. Many of these events are primaries whose dates are established by state law. Hence, it would take an act of the state legislature to move the date. The issues:

• State legislatures might change their election laws and state parties might change their caucus dates to comply with the new rules.
• States could ask for a waiver to be "grandfathered" to the date set by law prior to the adoption of this rule.
• If any state retains their February date, the "carve-out" states are likely to move their dates into January. For example, New Hampshire law [RSA 653:9] states that their Presidential primary is held "... on a date selected by the secretary of state which is 7 days or more immediately preceding the date on which any other state shall hold a similar election..."
• States currently starting on the first Tuesday in February might simply move to the first Tuesday in March. If this happens, those states would join the states already starting on the first Tuesday in March resulting in a 2016 "National Primary" that encompasses more states than the 5 February 2008 "National Primary".

"Some form of proportional delegate allocation" is required for events in March 2016.

"Any presidential primary, caucus, convention, or other meeting held for the purpose of selecting delegates to the national convention which occurs prior to the first day of April ... shall provide for the allocation of the delegates selected on a proportional basis." The document adds "The new Subsection (2) requires that any state holding its presidential nominating process in March include some form of proportional delegate allocation, as determined by the state." This provision does not apply to the four "carve-out" states (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada).

By "proportional", the RNC means

• Delegates who are bound to Presidential candidates based on the statewide vote may not be bound "winner-take-all" before 1 April 2016. However, a state may set an up to 20% qualification threshold (that is, a candidate must receive 20% or more of the statewide vote in order to qualify for delegates) and a state may set a 50% or more winner-take-all threshold (that is, if a candidate receives 50% of the vote, that candidate receives all of the statewide delegates).
• The proportional allocation rule does NOT apply to Congressional District delegates bound according to the vote in a Congressional District, National Convention delegates directly elected in a primary, or National Convention delegates who are NOT bound to vote for a particular candidate.