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A new Republican National Committee rule says that no state holding its presidential contest before April is allowed to award its delegates to the national convention on a winner-take-all basis, unless it is one of the four early carve-out states (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada).

Many states see the winner-take-all as being preferable to a proportional format, because it provides for bigger swings in the delegate race and makes their states more important. Thus, the RNC created the new rule to make it less appealing for states to move their contests earlier in the year.

But here’s the catch: Florida is already in violation of RNC rules because it moved its primary into January. And the RNC, which has already docked Florida half of its delegates for moving its primary up, says it cannot punish a state twice. Therefore, the states that are already in violation of RNC rules for setting their primaries too early (Florida, Arizona and Michigan) were allowed to go winner-take-all.