Am I the only one who's irked about this delegate system? Or to be more precise, the Super Delegate thing?....Or maybe you're one of those that don't really know how this system works. Well, you can check out this spiffy professional type link here... but here's how I understand on the Democratic side, in G-n-B terms.....
- Delegates are people who get to go to the Democratic National Convention (this year it's in August) and vote for who will be the party's presidential nominee.
- Delegates can be any Democrat registered to vote. You. Joe Schmo. Anybody. If you wanna be one, you just go to your local party chapter and they will break down the selection process.
- When the primary or caucus occurs, in most states, delegates are awarded on a proportional basis. For example, if Jack got 30% of the vote in Texas and Jill got 70%, then 30% of the Texas delegates pledge to vote for Jack at the convention, and the other 70% pledge to vote for Jill.
- Each state has a different number of delegates depending on their population. There are 3,253 Democratic party delegates in all. See your state number here.
Actually sounds simple, right? But wait! There are also these Super Delegates...
- Super Delegates also go to the Democratic National Convention and vote for who the party's presidential candidate will be. However, they're different from regular delegates because they can vote for whomever they want, regardless of how average citizens voted in the primary. Why? I have no idea.
- Super-delegates are congressman, Democratic party big-wigs, governers, big ballers and shot-callers. Why? I have no idea.
- There are 796 Democratic super-delegates.
So in the case of candidates Jack and Jill (above), Jack might have won the majority of the popular vote around the country during the primaries, but if Bob the super delegate is really feeling Jill, he could say "Bump Jack! Jill gets my vote." If enough super delegates think and vote like this, a candidate (in this case, Jack) could lose the nomination even though most of the average citizens around the country actually chose him.
With 4,049 delegates total (that's delegates plus super-delegates), and a big portion of that number being the "anything goes" super delegates, that means that Jack and Jill scenario is a very real possibility.
Does that sound fair to you?
Here's another take on this issue:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/108697?gt1=10856
(Thanks to S. in the Garden State for sending me this Newsweek article)
2 comments:
Like you, I find this off putting. But I'm not altogether unfamiliar with hijinks of this sort. Think about the Electoral College and the power that members of the College have. They're not bound to cast their votes according to the popular vote in their state. I find that mind-blowing.
It may be too late for this election, but I think that the public needs to call for a close examination (and perhaps reform) of both the delegate AND electorial college systems. Already Donna Brazile (democratic strategist and CNN analyst) has said that if the nomination ends up being decided by these super delegates, she's fittin to leave the party. I wonder will she actually do it, and how many others will take this type of stand.
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