Here’s something interesting picked out by two keen-eyed wonks on Twitter on Tuesday night: Donald Trump may have lost two delegates that he otherwise would have gotten in Illinois because some of his voters declined to cast their ballots for Trump delegates with Muslim-sounding names.
In Illinois’ so-called loophole primary, 18 districts elect three GOP convention delegates each on an individual basis; those delegates are listed on ballots alongside their candidate affiliation. In two districts, Trump-affiliated delegates with Muslim-ish names got thousands of fewer votes than other Trump delegates. (Vox has more on those two delegates themselves; both have prior records in Illinois GOP politics.) You can see Nabi Fakroddin’s totals above; here are the numbers for Raja Sadiq:
Screenshot/CBS Chicago
As you can see, Toni Gauen also got fewer votes than the other Trump delegate, so maybe some voters in that district simply decided to split their ballot between Trump and Cruz. Or maybe “Toni Gauen” is a suspiciously foreign name too!
Update, 3:20 p.m.: David Wasserman, who initially noticed this trend, has written more about it at FiveThirtyEight. In addition to the examples above, Wasserman notes that a Trump delegate named Jim Uribe got 2,500 fewer votes than one named Rich Nordstrom, which is, technically speaking, the whitest name in history. Rich Nordstrom!
