Donald Trump officially won the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, with 1,725 votes for him and 721 votes against.
During the roll call vote, observers noticed some discrepancies between what delegates announced as their state’s votes and what the chair actually counted as their votes. In four instances, for example, delegates announced a certain number of votes and the chair corrected the announcement, giving Trump more votes on net.
If those votes hadn’t been corrected, Trump would have gotten 74 fewer delegates, Ted Cruz would have gotten 52 more votes, Marco Rubio would have gotten 15 more, John Kasich would have gotten nine more and Ben Carson would have gotten two more. (Hat tip to the Tax Foundation’s Joe Henchman for diligently tracking the votes as they were cast and as they were corrected by the convention secretary)
Trump still would have won with a resounding 1,651 votes, but the states that had their votes corrected were still bitter about the change.
Alaska
Originally cast 11 votes for Trump, 12 for Cruz and five for Rubio. Chair corrected the votes to 28 for Trump.
District of Columbia
Originally cast 10 votes for Rubio and nine for Kasich. Chair corrected the votes to 19 for Trump.
Nevada
This was the only instance where the chair’s correction hurt Trump. The state originally cast 16 for Trump, six for Cruz, seven for Rubio and one for Kasich. The chair’s correction took two from Trump and gave them to Ben Carson.
Utah
Originally cast all 40 votes for Cruz. Chair corrected the votes to 40 for Trump.
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
