Republican presidential candidates, businessman Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich appear during a Republican presidential primary debate at the Fox Theatre in Detroit on March 3. (Paul Sancya, The Associated Press)
Re: Donald Trump, Colorado, and the GOP nomination , April 19 letters to the editor.
As much as I agree with many Republican voters frustrations over the arbitrary and undemocratic rules established by the GOP to nominate the party s presidential candidate, such accusations deserve a level of clarity. The 1,237 delegates required are not arbitrary. The number is half plus one of the total 2,472 Republican delegates available this election cycle (a simple majority), and has been a clear threshold for every candidate from the start of the campaign season. How these delegates are selected and whether a primary or caucus system is a better method for doing so is a separate issue. That said, it is not undemocratic to require the GOP nominee to obtain a 50+1 majority of delegates at the convention. It s hardly the will of the people when a candidate can t even get a simple majority.
David Roth, Denver
This letter was published in the April 21 edition.Donald Trump s supporters, and others, have asserted that it would be undemocratic to deny the nomination to a candidate who comes into the convention with the most committed delegates, even if he or she is short of the required majority. If that was the case, then Abraham Lincoln (who was a decided second on the first ballot of the 1860 Republican convention and who secured the nomination only on the third ballot) would not have been elected president and we likely would not have a country today. There is no legal or constitutional requirement that a leader on the first ballot must be the nominee on a second ballot, and any freed-up delegate who would vote on a second ballot for a candidate he or she detests solely on the basis of such a mistaken notion would not be advancing the cause of democracy.
Stephen Greenspan, Littleton
This letter was published in the April 21 edition.
