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Trivia answer

What is the highest number of rounds of balloting in presidential convention history?
a. Eight
b. 21
c. 57
d. 103

A brokered convention occurs when a party does not select a nominee during its first round of delegate voting at the nominating convention. In most cases, delegates are then permitted to vote for the candidate of their choice, allowing for input by party leaders. Additional votes are taken until a majority settles on a nominee.

The last brokered convention was the Democratic National Convention in 1952, when Gov. Adlai Stevenson (D-Ill.) received the nomination on the third round of voting. The greatest number of rounds of voting in presidential convention history took place at the 1924 Democratic National Convention, when 103 ballots were held before the nomination was awarded to Ambassador John Davis (D).

Heading into the 1924 convention, the leading candidates were Gov. Al Smith (D-N.Y.), who would be the party's nominee in the 1928 election, and former Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo (D-Calif.). McAdoo drew his support from Democrats who were supporters of Prohibition and the Ku Klux Klan, while Smith was backed by Democrats who opposed Prohibition and the Ku Klux Klan. After a record-long 17 days of voting, delegates eventually settled on Davis as a compromise candidate.

Since the adoption of the convention system in 1832, there have been 15 brokered Democratic conventions and nine brokered Republican conventions. The most rounds of voting in a Republican presidential convention was 36 in the 1880 convention.

Although the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, a brokered convention is distinct from a contested convention. A contested convention takes place when no candidate has the support of a majority of delegates at the time a convention starts. Although contested conventions may end up being brokered, it is possible for a candidate to win over enough delegates to constitute a majority in between the beginning of the convention and the first round of voting.

This was the case during the 1976 Republican National Convention, the most recent contested convention in U.S. history. Although neither incumbent Gerald Ford (R) nor Gov. Ronald Reagan (R-Calif.) had support from a majority of delegates at the time the convention opened, Ford was able to win over enough delegates to win the nomination on the first round of voting.