Trump gains 12 delegates, takes total to 751
March 27, 2016 4:50 PM MST
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During Missouri's Republican presidential primary, which took place on March 15, 2016, 12 delegates are awarded to the candidate who receives the most total votes statewide. Another 40 delegates were available, in groups of five, to the winner of each of the eight congressional districts in the state. This year's election had one of the closest outcomes ever in Missouri history.
As of March 27, 2016, unoficially, businessman and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has received 382,093 votes, or 40.83% of all votes cast. Texas Senator Ted Cruz has received 380,367 votes, or 40.64% of the total vote. Ohio Governor John Kasich has received 92,533 votes, or 9.9% of Missouri votes. Finally, Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who has suspended his campaign, has received 57,006 votes or 6.1% of all votes cast.
The remainder of all votes (2.3% of the total votes cast in the election) were divided amongst candidates who have quit the campaign, namely Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Rick Santorum, and others.
In Missouri, the Secretary of State is Jason Kander, a Democrat, and Secretary Kander has four weeks from the date of an election to certify the results. Since Ted Cruz lost to Donald Trump by a margin of less than 0.5%, once the Secretary certifies the election results, Cruz will have seven days to ask for a recount.
While the election has still yet to be certified, finding an additional 1,726 votes means moving votes from other candidates to Cruz. If any votes were missed, they will be missed at rates that can be quantified into a statewide error percentage for vote totals. We don't know if Cruz intends to ask for a recount or not (Cruz is not showing his hand on this one), however at the present time, the unofficial winner of the state is still Donald Trump.
Trump won five congressional districts, which awarded him 25 delegates from this category alone. Now add in 12 more for being the statewide winner, and Trump's total Missouri delegates won is 37, not 25. Ted Cruz won three congressional districts, or 15 delegates total.
With the extra 12 delegates for winning the election statewide, Trump now has 751 committed delegates, or 60% of the total required to gain the Republican nomination for president.
Ted Cruz is far back in second place behind Trump, with 465 delegates, and rounding out the field is Kasich, who now has 143 delegates.
What is difficult to understand is why, two weeks after Missouri's election, the results have still not been certified by Secretary Kander. Most of the states that voted on March 15, including Florida, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio, have long since declared an official statewide winner. There are no easy explanations for why there is a delay in Missouri.
The unofficial results in Missouri have not changed since all 100% of precincts have reported their results to the Secretary's office.
Cruz is still 1,726 votes behind, and its a big unknown if Cruz would be able to win a recount.
While recounts are not a common occurrence in every election, they do occur. Only if a recount is asked for will the Secretary of State actually conduct one, and then determine if the recount will be a machine recount, or a manual one. A machine recount uses voting machines to retabulate the total vote and to submit final results to the Secretary for an official certification of final vote totals. A manual recount means that votes are tabulated by hand.
Our take on the 12 delegates is that unofficially, Trump won the state, and won those 12 delegates. Trump additionally won five congressional districts for 25 delegates more, bringing Trump's delegate total in Missouri to 37; thus taking his 2016 election total to 751 in this year's Republican presidential primary campaign.
If the results hold up, Trump will have already collected 60% of the necessary 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination for president. If Trump has won the congressional districts unofficially, then that means that Trump has won the state unofficially. It's time to count all the delegates that Trump won unofficially in Missouri.
We'll keep you up to date on the latest election results here at Examiner.com. For now, it's time that Trump get credit for what he's won; unofficially or not. It was absolutely a close election, but it was Trump that won statewide on election night, and not Cruz. Let's give Trump the credit he deserves for a fine election victory in Missouri. After all, he earned it.
http://www.examiner.com/article/trum...s-total-to-751