By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

State Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, and several other Shelby County residents likely will be going to the 2012 Republican National Convention after they were elected as delegates for Republican presidential candidates.

Ward won a delegate spot for presidential candidate Mitt Romney during Alabama’s March 13 primary elections.

Alabama has a total of 50 Republican delegates: Three delegates for each one of the state’s seven congressional districts, 26 statewide at-large delegates and three spots reserved for the Alabama Republican Party’s chairman, national committeeman and national committeewoman.

Two of the three delegates for each state congressional district are awarded to the presidential candidate who received the most votes in the district, and the third delegate is awarded to the candidate who finished second in the district.

The statewide at-large delegates are distributed based on each presidential candidates’ performance in the state primary election, said Shelby County Republican Party Chairman Freddy Ard. To be awarded state at-large delegates, a presidential candidate must obtain at least 20 percent of the state’s total votes.

Ward won the Place 2 Romney delegate position. Ard said delegates from the first nine or 10 places for presidential candidate Rick Santorum, and delegates from the first seven or eight places for Romney and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich likely will be going to the RNC.

“Most definitely, I think he (Cam) will be going to the convention as a delegate,” Ard said.

Ward said this will be his fifth trip to the RNC, but said this year will be the first time Alabama has sent delegates for three candidates to the convention.

“There’s a possibility that this could be a real active convention,” said Ward, who is the Alabama legislative co-chair for Romney’s campaign. “I’m very excited.”

At the convention, which will be held Aug. 27-Sept. 1 in Tampa Bay, Fla., delegates from all over the country will cast their votes to determine who will be the Republican presidential nominee to run against Democratic incumbent Barack Obama in the general election.

Other Shelby County residents likely traveling to the RNC as delegates are Alabaster resident Caitlin Connors, who won at-large Place 4 for Romney; Paul Glass, who won a place for Romney in the 6th Congressional District; and William Glass, who won the at-large Place 6 for Romney.