Trailhead

Revisiting Louisiana’s Arbitrary Election Rules

It looks like Mike Huckabee is probably going to win in Louisiana—but it won’t count. Despite clear evidence that the state prefers Mike Huckabee over John McCain, no delegates will be awarded based on this primary. That’s because of a silly rule that the Republican primary results only impact the state’s delegate allotment if the winner gets more than 50 percent of the vote. Instead, the delegates will be based on a late-January caucus that barely anyone cared about. To make things even more confusing, the “winner” of the caucus wasn’t a candidate—it was a “pro-life uncommitted” slate. That means those state delegates can pick John McCain or Mike Huckabee at the state convention. From there, the national delegates will be selected.

Confused? Check out our previous post on the Louisiana caucus . A choice excerpt to whet your arbitrary-democracy appetite:

But here’s the thing—their Tuesday night vote didn’t actually select a nominee. The 10,000-plus people merely chose delegates for the state convention—and the winning delegate body didn’t even represent a specific candidate. “Pro-life uncommitted” won the Louisiana state caucuses , which means every Republican besides Rudy Giuliani has a chance of getting those delegates because the delegates will remain uncommitted until the state convention later this year. At the state convention, a select number of delegates will be chosen to go to the national convention to represent Louisiana. They’ll have to commit to a candidate before they do that.