Excerpt from Wikipedia site: Republican Party presidential primaries, 2012
Guidelines for primary and caucus dates Based on a temporary committee's proposal, the Republican National Committee (RNC) adopted new rules for the timing of elections on August 6, 2010 with 103 votes in favor out of 144.[229] Under this plan, elections for delegates to the national convention were to be divided into three periods:[230]
February 1 – March 5, 2012: Contests of traditional early states Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina
March 6 – March 31, 2012: Contests that proportionally allocate delegates
April 1, 2012 and onward: All other contests including winner-take-all elections
By the fall of 2011, several states scheduled contests contravening this plan, pushing the primary calendar into January. These contests are in violation of RNC rules, with New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida, Arizona and Michigan set to be penalized with a loss of half of their delegates: New Hampshire will be penalized from 23 delegates to 12, South Carolina from 50 to 25, Florida from 99 to 50, Arizona from 58 to 29 and Michigan from 59 to 30. As they are holding non-binding caucuses, Iowa, Colorado, Maine and Minnesota will not be automatically penalized, as their contests to bind national delegates are made later.[231][232]