Following Wisconsin, Hillary's popular vote lead has gone down

[MineralMan]

from 2.5 million to 2.4 million. Caucus states that do not report popular vote numbers are not included in those numbers. Iowa, for example, did not report any popular vote numbers, while Minnesota did. Some states do, and some states do not.

[grasswire]

1. and she has won 1 out of 199 counties..

...in the last six states.

[CalvinballPro]

3. How about all states that have voted? Why cherry-pick a number like "the last 6?"

Oh, right, because St Bernard's record is an embarrassment in the contests prior to the last 6, that's why.

[morningfog]

7. The last six were the most recent. It shows the trend.

[MineralMan]

5. Yes, OK. That matters

in those states, for sure, and affects how many delegates each candidate was allocated. Bernie Sanders has cut into Hillary's pledged delegate margin, too. It's down to about 215 now. Obviously, the wins by Sanders are reducing her lead in both areas.

I don't count counties, to tell you the truth. I count pledged delegates, primarily, and the popular vote as a secondary thing.

Delegates go to the convention. Counties do not.

[Marr]

11. You don't count counties, but you compare vote totals when one

candidate has dominated caucuses.

Tallying counties is exactly the same kind of thing as touting total votes.

[MineralMan]

13. Unless you have actual vote counts for each county,

it's really meaningless. A county is a boundaried area with a variable population. There are counties in most states with so few people that they are pretty much empty. There are other counties with populations in the millions. The two are not the same thing in any way.

So, no, I pay no attention to counties at all. Now, Congressional districts are quite another thing. They're set up to have roughly the same populations. They are also the unit that determines the delegate count in most states. IN most states, it is the vote in each congressional district that is used to allocate delegates from that district.

I've not seen a site that tracks the primary by congressional district, though. That would be very welcome, since it's material to delegate selection.

[Marr]

18. Yes, I know. I'm saying that comparing the number of counties won

by a candidate to those of his/her competition is about as relevant as comparing the total number of votes received in a mixed system of primaries and caucuses. Win a caucus state and you're not gaining votes. The win represents plenty of voters, but not votes.

[MineralMan]

19. Yeah, OK. I see what you're saying.

I'm in Minnesota, a caucus state that does report popular votes. But...less than 10% of registered voters turned out to the caucuses. Way less, actually. My precinct has about 2000 registered voters, and about 2/3 of those are Democrats. We had 57 people who voted at our precinct caucus. I know that because I'm the DFL precinct chair and chaired the caucus.

While I enjoy our caucus and convention system here, I'm working with many others to pass legislation to switch us to a primary election state for these elections. I'd like to see a higher participation in our primary process. I think that would give us a better sample of voter opinion.

[KingFlorez]

17. But Romney won more counties....

[riversedge]

2. Ah--we have a match: Sanders spent $2.4 million to win Wisconsin

This is early tweet--I think his delegates are up to 13 or 14 now.


Daily News Bin ?@DailyNewsBin 14h14 hours ago

Bernie Sanders spent $2.4 million to win Wisconsin, only came out six delegates ahead

http://www.dailynewsbin.com/opinion/bernie-sanders-spent-2-4-million-in-wisconsin-only-came-out-six-delegates-ahead/24373/ …
View summary
81 retweets 72 likes

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. every time they crow about the vote numbers we should remind them of this

Not that it will penetrate their bubbles at all, but those who still care about facts might notice.

[oldandhappy]

6. I am interested in this 2.4/2.5 mil votes ahead.

Gore won the popular vote but lost the presidency. In the primary, the delegate count is more important than the popular vote. In the GE the electoral college counts for more than the popular vote. Soooooo? I am willing to learn, smile.

[MineralMan]

9. This is not the general election.

Delegates are allocated by each state in proportion to the votes in primaries or caucuses. That's true only for the Democratic Party, though. The Republicans have some states that are winner-take-all.

If you look at the percentages of the popular vote and the delegate count for each candidate, you'll see that they are about the same. There are variations, but not large ones. By the convention, that will still hold true, pretty much, as you'll be able to see at that time. You can see such numbers easily in the table at the link below, if you're interested in following them:

http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/D

[Baobab]

8. What percentage of the electorate has voted so far?

Seems like many of the biggest states are still ahead.

[MineralMan]

10. 59% or so of the pledged delegates have

been awarded as of today. That's probably pretty close to the percentage of the electorate, too. I don't have better numbers than that, though. The primaries are all about delegate selection, so only 41% or so of pledged delegates remain to be selected.

You're right, a number of states with large populations have not held primary events yet. By the end of April, more will have. The June 7 primaries will include California, the largest state, population-wise.

The link below is a great resource, and lets you look at primaries state-by-state, as well as nationally. I visit it frequently when I have questions:

http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P16/D

[DanTex]

12. I think you might have that backwards... 59% assigned so far, 41% to go.

[MineralMan]

14. You are correct, sir. I misread the table.

I'll edit my post.

[Baobab]

15. Thank you- that is a really useful site- Bookmarked!

its in my browser toolbar now.

[MineralMan]

16. Don't miss the individual state pages.

Scroll down and click on the state abbreviation under Democratic Primaries to view not only results, but the methodology used in each state to allocate delegates. It's very interesting.