Ben Carson and John Kasich will finish far from the top on Super Tuesday. But their presence in the campaign could do more than merely limit votes for Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

The complicated way the Republican party awards delegates by state to the nominating convention makes Carson and Kasich consequential, even if they garner modest support Tuesday. Several of the 11 states voting have minimum percent thresholds that candidates must meet to receive delegates, meaning that 19 percent of the vote in a given state could earn 0 percent of that state’s delegates.