This weekend marked the last weekend for early voting in Tennessee’s Presidential Primary election, and as voters looked to make their decisions, those who choose to vote a Republican ballot have been facing a lengthy list of names to consider beyond the choice for president.
That's because of the different way Republicans and Democrats in Tennessee pick the people who will decide their party's presidential nominee.
On the Democratic ballot, the choice for presidential preference has been pretty straightforward – simply picking the candidate they want to be the Democratic nominee.
But the choice for Republicans has been more complex.
In addition to picking the candidate they want to represent the Republican party, GOP voters must pick 17 party delegates out of a field that numbers more than 100 options, in a list that goes on for pages in previously-mailed sample ballots.
“They will go to the Republican National Convention later this year and cast their ballots for two rounds of balloting for those individuals running for president,” said Brent Leatherwood with the Tennessee Republican Party.
When added together with delegates chosen from all congressional districts in Tennessee, those delegates Republican voters select may play a bigger role at the 2016 Republican National Convention than in past years.
That's because of the possibility of a brokered – or contested – convention, where no Republican presidential candidate arrives with a majority vote to earn the nomination for president.
“These [delegates] become very influential in deciding who would be the republican nominee,” Leatherwood said.
While some of the delegates voters will pick from aren't committed to voting for a particular candidate in the nomination process, most of the delegates are committed to a specific candidate. But in the case of a brokered convention, delegates are eventually allowed to change who they're voting for -- using their own judgment – in hopes of selecting a candidate that will get enough delegate support to be named the GOP presidential nominee.
“That’s why voters choosing delegates does matter,” Leatherwood said. “That’s why we want voters to go vote and do so in an informed fashion.”
And being informed, Leatherwood said, means GOP voters knowing not only which presidential candidate they’re voting for, but which delegates to vote for, too.
