Unpledged delegates in the Republican Party do not have to indicate a candidate preference, but a majority are elected just like pledged delegates.

CNN: Newt Gingrich Results - Primaries - 2012 Election Center - Elections & Politics from

Put simply, there are enough unpledged delegates and super delegates on the Republican side that if consolidation toward Governor Romney appears to be clear and inevitable, he could well get support from delegates not currently elected or pledged to him, as the process winds towards May and perhaps June.

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CNN's most recent estimate gives 812 delegates to McCain, including 26 "unpledged" delegates, and 217 to Huckabee including three unpledged.

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The column labeled "Total" shows CNN's current delegate estimate for each candidate, including all delegates allocated to a candidate as a result of the primary or caucus results as well as unpledged RNC member delegates in states which have them.

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For those other states, the column labeled "UNPL. RNC" shows the number of unpledged RNC member delegates who have endorsed each candidate.

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There are 123 unpledged RNC members that become delegates automatically.

CNN: Newt Gingrich Results - Primaries - 2012 Election Center - Elections & Politics from

Those eight contests have 519 delegates at stake: 238 awarded winner-takes-all, 241 split proportionally and 40 unpledged.

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