2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumAll the info you need to understand the NY delegate selection plan
There seems to be some confusion about the NY delegate selection. I've seen a couple posts saying "OMG vote for my candidates delegates."
Here's a summary of how it works. Candidates qualify delegates by petition a few months before the election.
Delegates are distributed proportionally based on vote share. The delegate with the most votes is the first assigned to that candidate. The delegate of the opposite gender with the highest vote is next assigned, on and on until they are all assigned. Here is an example
Hillary wins a 5 Delegate congressional district 51-49.
Delegate vote is as follows:
Clinton Delegates (numbers are votes)
115 Alice
114 Joan
110 Bob
109 Jen
105 Dean
Bernie Delegates
105 Bill
103 Tom
102 Merry
98 Elena
95 Peter
Hillary gets 3 delegates and Bernie gets 2. The delegate with the most vote for each candidate goes first.
Alice is chosen for Hillary and Bill for Bernie. The next delegate is the highest vote getter of the opposite gender. Hillary gets Bob and Bernie gets Merry. The last delegate is chosen in the same way. Hillary gets Joan. Final outcome:
Hillary
115 Alice
110 Bob
114 Joan
Bernie
105 Bill
102 Merry
On some level it doesn't matter at all if you vote for a delegate. If you support Bernie and your best friend is a Hillary Delegate, vote for both. If you love Hillary, but you hate one of her delegates, don't vote for them.
Someone mentioned that there are cases where Bernie is short delegates. This is because he failed to qualify them. But this will only matter if Bernie wins by massive margins (75-25 or better).
Here is the official documentation from NYS.
http://www.elections.ny.gov/NYSBOE/law/2016NYSPresidentialPrimaryBallotAccessSummary.pdf
Hopefully that clears things up
LonePirate
(13,431 posts)Renew Deal
(81,871 posts)Hopefully it makes people feel a little better about the process.
bbrady42
(175 posts)Thanks for the clear explanation.
eggplant
(3,913 posts)...the only Bernie vs Hillary part that really matters is that part. The delegate voting is used to determine *which* Bernie delegates will be picked to represent Bernie's overall %age of votes in the district. (And vice versa.)
Renew Deal
(81,871 posts)And the candidate can veto the delegate slate early in the process, so the delegates should be loyal.