Just curious if people actually understand how the delegate proportioning system works in the political primaries...

In a separate thread, someone was speaking about how Hillary had already won the nomination, which leads me to believe that most people don't understand the process...since no one from either party has won the nomination, either mathematically or technically(which can only occur at the party conventions).

So do most people understand it? And what are your thoughts on it?

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.........

Yea, Can i get that supersized with a Hi-c please

THE END IS NEAR

I will be honest and say that I don't have a clue.

Thanks! Glad to have someone finally be honest. No judgment, it's definitely a f***ed up system to have and really hard to understand. Then, even once you understand it, you realize that it still makes no sense, lol. We've gotta revamp the whole damn election process IMO.

Yeah I agree a new system would be great. Something that everyone can understand. Since I voted, and had to vote for the delagates for the person I voted for, I kind of have a small understanding...but I know that I will never fully...*insert crazy eye twirling smiley*

But that's the problem, you didn't vote for the delegates. Delegates are appointed through the individual parties (Dems and Reps). But, for those which are not currently in a political office, they are required to vote for who their state voted for (or an appropriate allocation thereof). Basically they just recast your vote...they're redundant. Then there are the superdelegates, and they are the ones who are already politicians in office...they can vote for whoever they damn well please, regardless of how the primaries went.
It's all messed up.

Well then who in the hell did I vote for??


I voted for Ron Paul, then went and found his name with two different sections with each containing two different names. I had not a clue who any of them were, so I just voted the name I liked better.


I understand what your saying, but it really makes no sense. Oooh just heard on ABC that they are going to talk about the super delegates and who they are...gonna watch.

Nevermind, they didn't say much of anything that matters.

You voted for Ron Paul. Your delegate, however, will be voting for Mike Huckabee. That's because the Republican primary system apportions their delegates in an all-or-nothing approach. Whichever candidate wins the state (even if it's with less than 50% of the vote) automatically gets the vote of all the delegates. If Paul got 30% and Romney 20% and McCain 10% and Huckabee 40%, all of the delegates would go to Huckabee anyway.

Delegate system is screwed up...as I said before and will say until my last breath, our voice is really just an opinion of who we think should be in...but it gets shut out by a screwed up delegate system oh and miscounts.

So how do they pick the delegates?

Note specifically the italicized and bolded section of this...pretty crazy.

Q. What are delegates and superdelegates?

A. They are voters who are registered as party members. A majority of their votes are needed at the conventions to select a party's presidential candidate, with 2,025 delegates needed for the Democratic nomination and 1,191 delegates for the Republican nomination.

Q. How do you become a delegate?

Each state and party have rules on how to become a delegate. In New Jersey, for example, Democrats who wanted to become delegates had to submit a petition and show that they have the approval of their candidate's campaign.

Q. How do you become a superdelegate?

Democrats have so-called "superdelegates," who go to the conventions by virtue of their elected or appointed positions. New Jersey has 20 Democratic superdelegates including Gov. Jon S. Corzine, its two U.S. senators, seven House members, six members of the Democratic National Committee, and party officials. Two are to be named in April. Republicans have three "unpledged" delegates: state party chairman Tom Wilson and two residents who are members of the Republican National Committee.

Q. How many delegates does New Jersey have and who got them?

A. Because he carried the state, John McCain received all the Republican Party's 52 New Jersey delegates, including the three unpledged delegates, because the GOP has a winner-take-all method.

New Jersey has 127 Democratic delegates. Of those, 107 were at stake Tuesday, with 70 to be awarded proportionally according to candidate vote totals in specially designated districts and 37 awarded proportionally based on statewide vote totals. Hillary Clinton won 59 and Barack Obama got 48, according to an Associated Press tally. The other 20 Democrats are the superdelegates, who can support whomever they want, regardless of Tuesday's vote.


Q. Can delegates, superdelegates or unpledged delegates change their mind when they get to the convention?

A. The rules vary by state and party. All the New Jersey Republican delegates are bound to their candidate , McCain , for three rounds of voting. The 107 regular Democratic delegates, who are pledged to either Clinton or Obama, are expected , but not required , to "reflect the sentiments of those who elected them," according to party rules. The Democratic superdelegates can vote for whoever they want, even if they have previously endorsed a different candidate.

Essentially, as long as you are registered for a party and promise to pay them the fee, they will consider you for delegate. Then when the state party convention occurs, they will vote who they want to be the delegates.

"Q. What are delegates and superdelegates?

A. They are voters who are registered as party members. A majority of their votes are needed at the conventions to select a party's presidential candidate, with 2,025 delegates needed for the Democratic nomination and 1,191 delegates for the Republican nomination. "

I did a copy and paste of part of this because I didnt' want to take up a bunch of space using the quote button (I wish more people would do that) anyway my question is why does it take almost twice as many liberals to select a candidate as it does conservatives?

Thanks for your brevity on the quoting...I've been pushing for that lately.

As for the delegates for each party, the difference is due to the fact that each party has complete discretion to create their own delegate rules. Republicans have simply chosen to have each delegate represent more people. Democrats, on the other hand, have leaned towards have more delegates (meaning that each delegate represents fewer people). Not sure what either reasoning is for this, but they have free reign since it's their party's primaries.

I am no expert on this, but to me, the delegate system is akin to the Electoral College. I do not agree with either the delegate system or the Electoral College. I think winning the presidency or the party's nomination to run for president should be based on the popular vote and not the delegate voting system.

I don't think Kentucky has any delegates, since we don't get to vote until the presidential election.

Even on May 20th? Lol.

Kentucky has 60 delegates and a primary election on 5/20/2008.