Caucuses, primaries, super-delegates, nominating conventions: How it all works

[TechBear_Seattle]

I'm posting this more to organize my thoughts and to make sure I have everything understood. If I get anything wrong, I'm sure I will be quickly corrected. :hi: If you think the info in this thread is useful, please recommend.

The purpose of the caucuses/primaries is to select delegates to the National Convention. The national party gives each state a set number of delegates. The number of delegates is determined by the number of registered party members; in states without partisan voter registration, I believe the results of the previous Presidential election are referenced. Delegates are apportioned within a state to reflect distribution of voters: a heavily Democratic area will get more delegates than an area with few Democrats. At the caucuses or primaries (which ever the state party uses), the participants/voters determine how their delegates will be committed.

The state party is NOT obligated to use the primary in picking delegates. Legally speaking, political parties are private organizations. As such, the courts have held that parties have a First Amendment right to pick their own nominees (well, major parties have that right while minor/third parties do not, but I digress.) There are states that technically are primary states (such as Washington) which only partially use the primary results (the Washington GOP selects 49% of its delegates by the primary, the rest by caucus) or ignore them completely (the Washington Dems have never used the primary, instead selecting 100% of its delegates by caucus.) This means that participating in the primary in some states is pointless and will have no effect whatsoever in getting your candidate nominated. One should check with the local party offices to see which method the state party actually uses in selecting delegates.

The delegates selected by caucus/primary are "committed" delegates. When a delegate is selected, she is obligated to vote for her candidate during the first ballot at the national nominating convention. If a candidate leaves the race after receiving committed delegates, I think they become uncommitted and may vote as they wish in that first ballot.

Super-delegates are "uncommitted" delegates. A super-delegate is someone who was not selected by caucus/primary, but has voting rights in the nominating convention by virtue of his position within the party. I am not sure who, exactly, has super-delegate status, but I believe they include Congressional representatives, Congressional senators, state governors, national party officers and some state party officers. As uncommitted delegates, super-delegates may vote as they wish during the first ballot of the nominating convention.

If a candidate receives enough committed delegates, their nomination is a foregone conclusion. Before the caucuses and primaries begin, the national party sets the number of delegates that will be selected. Adding in the count of super-delegates gets the total number of votes that can be cast; from that, the number of nominating votes needed to get a majority and win the nomination is calculated. If any one candidate receives at least that many committed delegates, then the first ballot of the nominating convention becomes a formality, as the candidate has already won the nomination. This is the fuel for earlier and earlier caucuses/primaries: states do not want to hold their selection of delegates after a nominee has been effectively selected.

All Hell breaks loose if there is no effective nominee named before the nominating convention. Committed delegates are committed only for the first ballot. If no one candidate receives a majority of delegate votes on the first ballot, all delegates become uncommitted and the politicking and back-room dealing begins. Officially, the the trading chips are planks in the national platform: "Our group of delegates will support your candidate if you in turn support our efforts to change the platform in this way." Unofficially... who knows? Eventually, a single candidate will get a majority of votes from the delegates and a nominee will be named.

I have probably missed a few items or gotten some of the information wrong, but I believe this is the gist. :toast:

(Edited for spelling and grammar.)

[Renew Deal]

1. Thanks!

[mirrera]

2. k&r n/t

[ursi]

3. And this is how the Borg wins and then we get stuck with a Republican president again?

I pray that doesn't happen!

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. Uhh.... huh?

If my info is wrong, please post something a bit more informative. Again, I put this up more to make sure I had everything correct.

[Perky]

7. Bjorn Borg can vote in US elections

damn those swedes....they get all the breaks.

[MaineDem]

4. A minor point...

In some states delegates awarded at the caucus/primary level go on to state or district conventions/caucuses where the National Delegates are elected. Normally, the same percentage of delegates "won" at the first step carries over to the next step but in some states, Maine for example, the National Delegates elected at the State Convention are proportional to the number of delegates AT THE CONVENTION supporting individual candidates. Things can change there depending on how many supporting delegates show up and haven't changed their minds since the caucuses.

Also, superdelegates are DNC members, Democratic members of the House and Senate, Democratic Governors, former Speakers of the House and Majority Leaders of the Senate, and former DNC Chairs. I think that's it.

[TechBear_Seattle]

5. Thanks for the info

I have been to state conventions before, but never in Presidential election years, so I wasn't sure how that worked exactly.