The 2008 Republican National Convention decided that the 2012 primary schedule generally would be subject to the same rules as the 2008 delegate selection contests , but on August 6 , 2010 , the Republican National Committee ( RNC ) adopted new rules for the timing of elections , with 103 votes in favor out of 144 . Under this plan , allocation of delegates to the national convention were to be divided into three periods : Several states , most notably Florida , scheduled their allocating contests earlier than prescribed , and in response every traditional early state except Nevada pushed their contests back into January . As a result of their violation of RNC rules , these states were penalized with a loss of half their delegates , including voting right for RNC delegates . Despite having early caucuses , Iowa , Maine , Colorado , Minnesota and Missouri were not penalized because their contests did not allocate national delegates
2008 Republican National Convention
2008 Republican National Convention
2012 Republican Party presidential primaries