United States Virgin Islands Republican caucuses, 2012

United States Virgin Islands Republican caucuses, 2012

March 10, 2012

Candidate Mitt Romney Ron Paul Party Republican Republican Home state Massachusetts Texas Delegate count 7 1 Popular vote 104 112 Percentage 26.7% 28.7%   Candidate Rick Santorum Newt Gingrich Party Republican Republican Home state Pennsylvania Georgia Delegate count 0 0 Popular vote 23 19 Percentage 5.9% 4.9%

The 2012 United States Virgin Islands Republican caucuses were held on March 10, 2012, the same day as the Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and Kansas Republican caucuses.^[1] Unlike standard caucuses, the delegates for the Virgin Islands were elected directly by GOP caucus-goers during the first round. No straw poll was taken at the caucus, but the delegates were bound to the candidate they pledged themselves to before the voting started. The six delegates receiving the most votes go to the National Convention. Three of the top vote-getters had previously pledged to Romney, and one had pledged to Paul. In addition, two of the elected uncommitted delegates committed themselves to Romney after the election. Like Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands cannot participate in the general election, but they can participate in the primaries.^[2]

Results

United States Virgin Islands Republican caucuses, 2012 [3]
Delegates	Votes	Affiliation
April Newland	42	Romney
Gwendolyn Brady ^#	37	Uncommitted
John A. Clendenin	32	Romney
Warren Bruce Cole ^#	31	Uncommitted
Luis R. Martinez	30	Romney
Robert Max Schanfarber	29	Paul
Joshua A. Schanfarber	21	Paul
Humberto O’Neal	20	Uncommitted
Geoffrey Wolfe	18	Paul
George Blackhall	16	Uncommitted
Dwain E. Ford	16	Gingrich
Vince Danet	15	Santorum
Roseann Wells	15	Paul
Michael Wilson	15	Paul
Eddie Jane Simmons	14	Paul
Kimberly Lynn Jones	12	Uncommitted
DeWayne Bridges	8	Santorum
James Bland	4	Uncommitted
Dennis Best	4	Uncommitted
Patrick Witcher	4	Uncommitted
Steve Mitchum	4	Uncommitted
Steven Hardy	3	Gingrich

^# Committed to Romney after he was elected

Delegate totals

In the Virgin Islands caucus, votes were cast for specific delegates rather than specific candidates; the top six vote-getters became delegates. The candidates included six delegates declaring for Paul, three for Romney, two for Gingrich, two for Santorum, and nine that had not declared for any candidate.^[3] Even though Romney had only three delegates on the ballot, they received more votes than most of the other pledged delegates, and all three were elected, whereas only one of Paul's delegates got enough votes to place in the top six. Two uncommitted delegates were elected along with the four pledged ones; one of these switched to Romney after the vote was conducted, giving the Massachusetts governor four total elected delegates, plus three super delegates from the territory that had already pledged to him before the caucus. This yielded a total of seven delegates for Romney, one for Paul and two uncommitted.^[4]

Popular vote

Raw vote totals showed that even though only one of Paul's delegates was elected, the combined showing for all six Paul pledges on the ballot exceeded that of the delegates for the other candidates. In all, 112 votes were cast for Paul's pledges, 104 for Romney's, 23 for Santorum's, 19 for Gingrich's. Uncommitted delegates got the highest combined vote total, however, at 132.^[5][6] At first it appeared Romney had received the most popular votes, since the votes for the uncommitted delegate who switched to Romney afterward were mistakenly added to Romney's column by some media Web sites; this was soon corrected.

As each caucus voter was entitled to six votes for all delegates at large (as opposed to voting separately for each delegate), it is not known just how many individual voters cast their ballots for which candidate's pledges; the popular vote totals only reflect the amount of raw votes each delegate received in the final tally.

References

1. "Primary and Caucus Printable Calendar". CNN. Retrieved January 22, 2012.
2. "Paul nets first win, but not in delegates". The Washington Times. 12 Mar 2012. Retrieved 12 Mar 2012.
3. "VI GOP 2012 Caucus Results After Ballot Verification of Challenged Ballots (Unofficial)". Retrieved March 20, 2012.
4. "Romney picks up 7 delegates in US Virgin Islands GOP caucuses; 1 for Paul, 1 uncommitted". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 11, 2012.
5. Dover, Sara (2012). "Ron Paul Wins Popular Vote In Virgin Islands GOP Caucus, Media Reports Mitt Romney Won - International Business Times". ibtimes.com. Retrieved March 20, 2012.
6. "Virgin Islands Republican Caucuses - Election Results - Election 2012". The New York Times. 24 Mar 2012. Retrieved 30 May 2012.

External links

• The Green Papers: for the U.S. Virgin Islands
• The Green Papers: Major state elections in chronological order