New draft: "Floor Fight: Protecting the Presidential Nomination Process from Last-Minute Manipulation of the Rules for National Party Conventions" papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
The Democratic & Republican parties nominate presidential candidates at national conventions. The rules governing the conventions aren't adopted until the conventions begin, after delegates have been selected & millions of votes cast throughout the nation in primaries & caucuses
The delegates vote on numerous potentially dispositive rules, such as whether delegates' pledges or binding are enforceable, the percentage of votes needed to win the nomination, eligibility requirements for potential presidential candidates, and whether the unit rule applies.
Due to the complexities of the presidential nomination process, delegates may be bound or pledged to presidential candidates they actually oppose. They may try to change the rules at the last minute to ensure the defeat of the very presidential candidates to whom they're bound.
Candidates, delegates, and party leaders have engaged in such last-minute machinations on numerous occasions, like the Democratic National Conventions of 1968 and 1980, and the Republican National Convention of 1880.
This piece explores the convention rules most susceptible to last-minute manipulation and presents several case studies. Allowing such last-minute rule changes fosters intra-party intrigue at the very moment a political party should be unifying and coalescing around a candidate.
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