Tuesday 3 April 2012: 16 of 19 of the District of Columbia's delegates to the Republican National Convention are pledged to a presidential contender in today's District of Columbia Presidential Preference Primary.

• 16 National Convention delegates are to be pledged to the presidential contender receiving the greatest number of votes in the primary [Rule IV. C. 4].
• The District's National Committeeman and the National Committeewoman are directly elected in today's primary [Rule III].

The 3 party leaders, the National Committeeman, the National Committeewoman, and the chairman of the CD Republican Party, will by virtue of their position, attend the Republican National Convention as unbound delegates. Note: While that National Committeeman and woman are elected on today's ballot they do not assume office until after the Republican National Convention.

Each Presidential candidate must file a complete slate of National Convention Delegates with the Board of Elections & Ethics. Slates of undeclared (uncommitted) delegates are not permitted. [Rule II. B. and C. 2. and C. 3.]. The names of persons on a slate of Delegates corresponding to a presidential candidate are provided to the voter [Rule II. E. 2]. Voters cast ballots for the slate of National Convention Delegates, not for individual Delegates [Rule IV. C. 3.]. Petitions must be filed by 4 January 2012 [Rule II. D. 1.].

Delegates remain pledged to a Presidential candidate until they are released by that candidate [Rule II. 2. C. 2. d)]. Should the winning candidate withdraw, the elected slate becomes uncommitted [Rule II. F. 3].

Notes:

An article in The Washington Informer - D.C. Political Roundup - 15 February 2012 states the following "The ... delegate process is winner-take-all ... The presidential candidate that wins the primary will have all ... 16 delegates and ... the ... chairman of the D.C. party, the committeeman and committeewoman ... even if they supported someone else in the primary ..." - outgoing D.C. Republican Committee Executive Director Paul Craney. On 16 February 2012, Tony Roza phoned the DC GOP and was told that the above is a misquote and while 16 delegates are BOUND, the 3 RNC delegates are NOT BOUND. [Hat Tip to DemConWatch for the link.]

On 27 April 2011, District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray signed B19-90 which was introduced by Councilmember Mary M. Cheh on 1 February 2011. The bill moves the Presidential Primary from "the 2nd Tuesday in January" to the 1st Tuesday in April and moves the regular primary from the "1st Tuesday after the 2nd Monday in September" to the 1st Tuesday in April. The next regular partisan and Presidential primaries will be held concurrently on 3 April 2012.