Nevada's convoluted primary/state convention rules seem designed to cause confusion

[Bill USA]

Here's good article that tries to explain what happened in Nevada last Saturday.... no wonder there was confusion!

Apparently they caucus in February getting a delegate split for the candidates. But then they have meetings in April to then select people to attend the state convention. Bernies people turned out for the April meetings in greater numbers than Hillary's people - (i.e. per the February caucus). Apparently, Bernie people wanted to forget the February results and just go with the April meetings results. The party leadership did not want to nullify the February results. I think that is an accurate description of what was going on.

Here’s what happened at Saturday’s dramatic Nevada Democratic convention

[font size="3"]Nevada's process for sending delegates to the national convention in Philadelphia is among the most complex. When the state caucused in late February, the fourth state on the calendar for the Democratic Party, the results of that process favored Hillary Clinton. Twenty-three of the 35 total bound delegates were given out proportionally in the state's four congressional districts, giving Clinton a delegate lead of 13 to 10. The results of the caucus suggested that after the state convention — which bound the state's seven at-large delegates and five delegates who are elected officials or party leaders — Clinton would end up with a 20-to-15 lead over Bernie Sanders, with Clinton winning one more delegate from the at-large pool (4-to-3) and one more from the party-leader pool (3-to-2) than Sanders.[/font]

[div class="excerpt" style="border:solid 1px #000000;"]NOTE: if you adjust the 13:10 (total of 23) delegate apportionment to a 35 delegate count (as in the 20:15 delegate split mentiooned above - arrived at after the State convention) you end up with a delegate split of 20:15 (note 20 was arrived at by rounding 19.5 to 20). Note that 35/23 = 1.52. Multiply the delegate split of 13:10 by 1.52. ... thus: 13x 1.52= 19.78, 10 x 1.52 = 15.2. These numbers were rounded to get the 20:15 split. _Bill USA

The people who attend(ed) the Democratic convention this weekend were chosen during voting in early April. At that point, Sanders out-organized Clinton, getting 2,124 people elected to the state convention (according to the tabulation at the always-essential delegate-tracking site the Green Papers) to Clinton's 1,722. That suggested that voting at the state convention would flip: Sanders would win those 4-to-3 and 3-to-2 contests, giving him a 7-to-5 victory at the convention and making the state total 18-to-17 for Clinton instead of 20-to-15.

But that's not what happened, as best as we can piece together.

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The first report from the credentials committee on Saturday morning indicated that Clinton had a slight edge in delegates. Sanders fans voted against that report, per Jon Ralston, and then demanded a recount — but this was simply a preliminary figure. As in the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1, the final total delegates went through a process of realignment as the day progressed.

That was when the vote to approve the rules as written — Roberta's Rules versus Robert's Rules, as some Sanders backers dubbed them — was conducted by voice vote. The motion, seconded by a Sanders supporter, passed — which is when the room, in Ralston's phrasing, "erupts." Ensuing speakers, including Sen. Barbara Boxer (a Clinton supporter), were interrupted by a vocal group of Sanders supporters at the front of the room.

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All of that tension set the stage for the final votes. The ultimate total reported by KOLO-TV was 1,695 Clinton delegates to 1,662 for Sanders, giving Clinton that one-delegate total in the at-large and party-leader pools. [font size="+1"]But the drama was far from over. Fifty-six Sanders delegates — enough to swing the majority — were denied delegate status, mostly because they weren't registered as Democrats by the May 1 deadline,[/font] according to the state party. (The Sun reports that eight potential Clinton delegates suffered a similar fate.)

[font size="3"]Convention leaders declined to reconsider those 56 delegates, and, spurred by the casino — because the event was already well past its scheduled ending time — adjourned for the day.[/font] Sanders supporters refused to concede, remaining in the casino's ballroom after the event had ended. Eventually, casino security and law enforcement officials entered to force the Democrats out of the space, even turning off the lights to get them to depart.

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[font size="3"]Thanks to Clinton's victory in Nevada on Saturday, hard-fought on the carpeted floor of the Paris hotel and casino in Las Vegas, her lead over Sanders extends to 282, per delegate-counter Daniel Nichanian. Had Sanders's supporters been successful on Saturday, that margin would have been 278 — a number that still demands that the senator win two-thirds of the remaining pledged delegates to take the lead.[/font]