Unit rule, in the United States, was a voting rule permitted by the Democratic Party at its presidential nominating conventions from 1860 until 1968. The rule permitted the entire vote of a state delegation to be cast for one candidate, even though a minority of the delegation members favored another candidate. The national convention did not require the unit rule, but it enforced state instructions to delegates to vote as a unit. The practice was abolished at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The Republican Party has never used the unit rule.
