Why Democratic Primaries are More Democratic...

[MineralMan]

Today, both parties have primary elections in Wisconsin. The Democratic Primary will determine the percentages of delegates proportionally to the election results. The delegates will be divided to correspond to the popular vote, although rounding can lead to an imprecise division by a delegate or two. That's the Democratic way.

Over in the Elephant Enclosure, though, Wisconsin is a "Winner-take-all" primary state. All of its delegates are awarded to the candidate with a plurality lead after the election. The other two candidates get bupkes. The Republican rules for primary elections are distinctly not democratic.

One more reason why I've been a Democrat all my adult life. The Democratic Party works hard to be fair and democratic.

[yeoman6987]

1. In a way true but super delegates can easily take away voters intentions and

Choice of candidate. I think the entire primary process needs an overhaul for both parties.

[merrily]

4. The Democratic Party instituted super delegates well before the Republican Party and tried to do so

well before the Democratic Party succeeded in instituting Super Delegates. Before that, it was Party bosses/leaders.

If you don't believe me, look at the candidate selection process in 1952, when Kefauver won, IIRC, every single primary that was held at the time, but Truman and party bosses, some of them with mafia contacts--the reason they were ticked at Kefauver to begin with--chose Stevenson at the convention anyway.

[yeoman6987]

5. I totally believe you. I just think super delegates should be used at the

Convention and not in totals during primary season.

[merrily]

9. And I don't think super delegates should be used at all, ever.

Thanks to my vote and my tax dollars, they got a job with power and a good salary and even better benefits. Why my vote and tax dollars should also "earn" them more voting power than I have is a mystery to me, especially as a member of something that calls itself the Democratic Party, rather than calling itself the Plutocratic Party.

[MineralMan]

10. I don't count superdelegates at all when

watching delegate counts. In a two candidate election, it is the pledged delegate count that will determine the winner. The superdelegates will vote in a way to ratify that majority.

Their role is to prevent the convention from stalling if there are more than two candidates. That is not the case this year. One of the two will have a majority of pledged delegates and the superdelegates will negate that majority. They simply will not.

[merrily]

2. Super Delegates are the opposite of democratic. So is using a system modeled on the electoral

college, which people have been trying so hard to eliminate. I understand the latter a bit more because it's used in the general. But there is no reason people cannot look at a popular vote in a primary in a given state and draw conclusions about how that state would go in the general.

[djean111]

3. Well, except for the superdelegates, who can just declare for whoever they want,

no matter what the common voters want. As DWS says, they are there to protect establishment candidates from those unwashed grassroots types. Not very Democratic, no matter how many times we are told well, that's just the way it is, so STFU.

[MineralMan]

7. As you will see in July, the superdelegates will ratify the

winner of the majority of pledged delegates. They will not swing the election to the loser. It will not happen.

[merrily]

11. Then why have them at all?

[MineralMan]

13. Because not all conventions have to select from just two candidates.

If there were three candidates this year, there would be fair chance that none of them would have a majority of pledged delegates. In that situation, the superdelegates might be the deciding factor. In a two-person race, they are not needed, and will act to confirm the majority of pledged delegates. There might be a few who do not vote for the candidate with the majority, but very few.

This convention will be decided on the first ballot. The pledged delegate count will be known and the holder of the majority of those pledged delegates will be elected as the nominee. Count on it.

If I'm wrong, I'll eat my crow pie, but I won't be wrong.

The superdelegates' job is to deal with a convention where there is no majority for one of the candidates. This year, that's impossible. They will act accordingly, I guarantee.

You want Bernie as the nominee? Get him a majority of pledged delegates. If he does, he'll be the nominee. If he doesn't, he won't.

It's up to the voters and his campaign to achieve that majority of pledged delegates. Can he do it? Well, it seems unlikely, but isn't impossible. His supporters need to keep working hard to help him.

[merrily]

15. Not a good reason. At a convention, the majority or plurality of pledged delegates can decide.

The superdelegates' job is to deal with a convention where there is no majority for one of the candidates.

Um, no clue where you are getting that whitewashed reason. That is not why the institution of super delegates was created and that is not what DWS recently described as their job.

[MineralMan]

16. Get Bernie a majority of pledged delegates,

and you'll see that I'm correct. If Hillary ends up with a majority of pledged delegates, though, she will be the nominee.

If you want to see Bernie Sanders in the general election, get him a majority of pledged delegates. That's the only way it will happen. Nothing else will do it. Can you make that happen? If so, keep working on supporting him.

NOTHING ELSE MATTERS! If he fails to get that majority, he won't be on the GE ballot.

[merrily]

17. Look how fast the subject changed from why have super delegates at all, if YOUR post is true, to

to what I should do to keep Bernie from losing to Hillary. LOL!


Thank goodness my ADD does distract me 100% of the time.

[djean111]

12. I wish I could believe that, I really really do. n/t

[MineralMan]

14. You'll believe it at the end of the convention.

I talked to my House representative, who is a strong Clinton supporter. I asked her what she'd do if Bernie ended up with a majority of pledged delegates. Her answer: "I'd vote for Sanders in that situation."

So would almost all of the other superdelegates. They're good people. Some support Hillary, but they all support the democratic process. They will do the right thing. Again, there may be a few who vote otherwise, but not enough to change the outcome.

The candidate with the majority of pledged delegates will be the nominee. Bank on it.

[HumanityExperiment]

6. "The Democratic Party works hard to be fair and democratic"...

Super delegates

Debates

Open / Closed Primary vs Caucus

"idea that all people should be treated equally" or "​believes in, ​encourages, or ​supports ​freedom and ​equality between ​people and ​groups"

Is the current election cycle 'working hard to be fair and democratic'?

facts would belie your premise

[k8conant]

8. Some clarification here:

1) Democratic Party has super delegates. How is that fair and democratic? Of course, the recent rule changes are somewhat different from the way things were when the conventions were nominating conventions and Hubert Humphrey got nominated without even winning any of the then-existing primaries. (Too bad for the guy I campaigned for--Eugene McCarthy) So I can't say the system was why I've been a Democrat all my adult life (it was the platform--which unfortunately has not kept pace)

2) For the Elephants:
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/explaining-the-delegate-breakdown-in-wisconsin-s-presidential-primary/article_63c69d1d-37e3-5bb7-bb0c-8362fe8526a0.html

In the Republican primary there are three kinds of delegates. Wisconsin has 42 delegates. Delegate selection is a “winner-take-all” system, both by district and statewide.

The breakdown: 42 total delegates: 24 from Wisconsin's eight Congressional Districts; 10 base at-large; five bonus; three party

1. Congressional District delegates: Delegates are selected by the party in the Congressional Districts they represent and must reside there. Each of the state's eight Congressional Districts is allocated three delegates.

2. At-large delegates: Delegates that are selected statewide. Each state gets 10 delegates and the RNC awards bonus delegates in states that meet certain criteria, including whether it has a Republican governor, Republican U.S. Senator and a Republican majority in the state Legislature.

3. Republican National Committee delegates: Each state’s three RNC members, including the state chair, national committeeman and national committeewoman are automatically national convention delegates.