Floor Fight Possible During RNC Vote, if Delegates Can Be Unbound

There may not be a contested convention, but the RNC may have a floor fight on its hands, even if efforts to change the rules fail, according to a group pressing for delegates to “vote their conscience” during next week's nationally-televised roll call.

Delegates Unbound, a group spearheading efforts to insist delegates can already vote freely for the presidential nomination, has set up shop in downtown Cleveland, just blocks from where those delegates will cast their vote on the floor of the Quicken Loans arena next week.

In an interview in their nerve center, a room scattered with empty coffee cups and donut boxes, Dane Waters, the head of the group, told ABC News even if last-ditch attempts to change the rules fail, the roll call vote on the floor of the GOP convention won't be "some quiet little rodeo."

"These individuals are extremely passionate about the right to vote their conscience," he said. "So I can’t imagine that people are gonna sit around and not do anything."

They’ve been working out of their office for 20 days, trying to educate delegates that if they don’t want to vote for Trump, they don’t have to. It’s something the RNC disagrees with, saying that the delegates are bound under the current rules.

Waters pointed to Rule 37(b), which allows delegates to object if they believe their vote was not announced correctly by their state delegation's leader.

"If a delegate feels that the state delegation chair has not properly represented their vote, then that individual has the right to object and demand that their vote be corrected," Waters said.

"Most people are not going to sit around and say, 'Okay, that’s okay,'" he said.

Despite this claim, the GOP convention's current rules state that the secretary must record the vote in line with the delegation's binding, regardless of the vote tally announced by the state's delegation chair.

These comments come as another group that partners with Delegates Unbound tries to force a vote on the convention floor on a new rule that would unbind the delegates. They must win over 28 members of the powerful, 112-member convention rules committee to support their cause.

Waters said a victory for their effort isn’t merely the incredibly difficult task of getting Donald Trump off the GOP ticket. Instead saying “this is much bigger than just Donald Trump” and he actually sees three possible wins for these specific “Stop Trump” forces.

One, that "delegates do vote their conscience and not try to be manipulated or guided or pushed by the RNC and the Trump campaign.”

The second win for them would be if "delegates stand up and make it clear that not everyone is in lockstep with Donald Trump,” and that’s where Waters sees the floor could get rowdy.

The third and last “win” is the most difficult, if not impossible, but one the “Never Trump” supporters have pushed for months.

“Number three is that the delegates freely choose, if they are allowed to freely choose. Then, in my opinion, Donald Trump will not be the nominee,” Waters said.

Either way, “Delegates Unbound” are working around the clock to try and ensure delegates don’t just fall in line on the convention floor in just days.

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