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VA Delegate Law Struck Down by Court

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A federal judge has struck down a Virginia law that binds the states' national political party delegates to a winner-take-all format, a ruling one GOP delegate hopes will embolden Republicans to vote for someone other than Donald Trump as their presidential nominee.

Judge Robert E. Payne ruled Monday that a law requiring the state to award all its delegates to the winners of the presidential primaries - and proscribes potential criminal penalties for those who disobey - is unconstitutional.

But the law was so obscure that the GOP delegates already planned on voting proportionally at the convention, and not winner-takes-all. The ruling does not free the delegates from voting proportionally based on the results of the March 1 primary, which Trump won. 

Carroll Correll Jr., an anti-Trump delegate, had challenged the law.

Don Rush is the News Director at Delmarva Public Media. An award-winning journalist, Don reports major local issues of the day, from sea level rise, to urban development, to the changing demographics of Delmarva.