Anti-Trump activists march in protest outside the Republican National Convention on July 18, 2016, in Cleveland, Ohio. | Getty Never Trump delegates threaten chaos at nomination vote They lost their battle against rules requiring them to vote for Trump, but they’re not promising to obey them.

CLEVELAND — Weakened and demoralized anti-Donald Trump activists, joined by a band of furious conservative delegates, are preparing to make a final stand here Tuesday, and it threatens to plunge the national convention into turmoil just hours before Republicans formally nominate Trump.

Though party rules purport to require delegates to vote for candidates based on their performance in state primaries and caucuses, this faction of rebellious delegates has argued for months that they should be free to vote their conscience instead. They failed to insert language affirming their belief in the party’s rules, and then failed to stop those rules from being adopted by the full convention Monday.


But they now intend to invoke the strategy anyway, voting against Trump in protest — and seeing if they can send a message about the party’s frustration with its soon-to-be standard-bearer.

“We’re still furious,” said Regina Thomson, a Colorado delegate who helped lead the “Free the Delegates” movement in support of the conscience vote. “Look how many hundreds of people took time off work, spent thousands of dollars to be here … their vote meant nothing from beginning to end. They’re angry and they should be.”

Invoking a conscience vote could spark a return to the convention floor chaos that marred the opening of the GOP convention Monday. The roll call, set to begin at 5:30 p.m., typically starts with Alabama and proceeds alphabetically through the 56 states and territories. The chair of each delegation — typically the governor or state party chair — announces to the convention how many votes its delegates cast for Trump, Ted Cruz, John Kasich and other candidates. But anti-Trump delegates may challenge those counts and force their states to poll their members. Under the rules, the chairman of the delegation is required to count the votes. But a new provision in the rules adopted this week requires that only the bound vote be counted by the convention secretary, Vermont delegate Susie Hudson.

Anti-Trump forces and their allies are also expecting Republican Party leaders and the Trump campaign to work to prevent them from using any tactics they have at their disposal. One option they’re watching out for: skipping the roll call vote altogether. If delegates suspend the rules — which would require a roll call vote — then move to declare a nominee “by acclamation,” it’s possible the convention could nominate Trump without going through the motion of a state-by-state roll call, preventing the possibility of a public spectacle.

Without any candidates formally challenging Trump, it would be simple for convention leaders to simply forgo the formality of a roll call. GOP leaders have dismissed detractors as a shrinking band of resisters who have failed to win votes to support their favored rule changes and supported candidates who were defeated easily in the presidential primary season.

But tempers are still running hot after those delegates sought and failed to receive a roll call vote on the convention’s adoption of those rules. Though they had initially seemed to gather enough support for the effort, GOP leaders worked the room and persuaded enough delegates to withdraw their names, effectively rescinding the roll call request.

“It’s the kind of thing that happens in banana republics with a strongman running them,” said Eric Minor, a Washington state delegate. Minor said he’s not sure whether he’ll attempt to reject his binding to Trump.

If the states are called individually, trouble may spring early. Alaska’s delegation was among those that rebelled against Trump on Monday, attempting to file signatures to reject the party’s newly adopted rules. Arizona delegate Lori Hack has similarly suggested she intends to vote her conscience on the floor of the convention.

Other anti-Trump delegates have suggested strategies — from walking off the convention floor to filing signatures to place Ted Cruz’s name into nomination, an option he’s suggested he isn’t pursuing. Thomson said she submitted Colorado’s signatures to the Cruz campaign months ago.

The bottom line, per three sources involved in the anti-Trump effort, is that some kind of strategy will be employed to make a final stand.

“Of course there’s going to be something,” Thomson said.