What is a Delegate?
In light of the popularity of my what is a caucus? post that involved me using a picture of duck hunters to explain the process; I figured I would do something similar to explain the delegate process.
Ultimately the respective democrat and republican nominees are not selected by the total number of citizens who actually voted for them, no that would be far too simple and democratic. They are chosen by delegates and each state is worth a certain number of delegates. On the republican side some states are winner take all while others divide their delegates based on the percentage of votes each candidate garners. But then there are the super delegates like governors and other dignitaries who represent votes at the respective conventions where the nominees are chosen. Dizzy yet?
For some, the delegate process might be confusing so let’s break this down as per the picture. Let’s say the front 3 hunters represent winner take all states, the back 2 represent split delegate states and the 2 dogs represent the super delegates (considering they don’t work and we have to pick up their shit they really are superior beings).
In order to be the nominee at our actual conventions, for a democrat it takes 2,025 delegates and 1,191 for a republican (again, making the number of delegates here equal would be far too straightforward).
That’s way too many for the above picture, so in my fictional scenario we’ll call this party the demo-repub’s and in order to win their nomination you need 4 out of 7 delegates. Again, to make this as simple as possible there are only two candidates vying for the demo-repub ticket. We’ll call these candidates Helen Omama and Matt McFry.
24 Comments
This sucked . . . you gave us a decent pic but didn’t say FUCK!
Ed, I feel your pain, But let’s give Alex a break. Hey Alex, maybe you can expand on the delegate system which does give me vertigo. What about uncommitted delegates, when are deleagets no longer bound and what about states that did not have delegates due to being punished by their parties for holding their primaries too soon? wHAT ABOUT DELEGATES FOR DROP OUT LOSERS WHEN ARE THEY FREE?
How is a super delegate apportioned? Is it by giving the dogs the most milk bones? All of this shit is very confusing and giving me a fucking headache. I think an expanded version of what a delegate is would clear up many people’s questions and satisfy Ed and anger Fritz and Betty with a good old Fuck or two thrown in.
You can do it!!!!!
Alex! ALEX ! ALEX!
GO FOR IT!
Thanks Fred.
I feel much better now.
My condolences. I have been away also. Mine was due to the death of an Uncle who was more of a brother to me. Heal fast!
Ed-Yeah I really thought hard about tossing the fuck bomb at the end but I figured I would do this one a little different.
Fred-Yeah this was just a slice of pie of what a delegate is. But I thought I hit the meat and potatoes of it which I felt was most important. This shit is so confusing that even the mainstream media doesn’t know what’s going on half the time.
As for the 2 states where the delegates don’t count for dems-well, as a registered democrat who resides in Florida I am not impressed (In Florida if you’re a registered indie you cannot vote in the primaries). Then again, I voted for Obama and Hillary won Michigan and Florida big so I hope they don’t count. I’m real curious to see what the hell the dems will do about this. It’s just retarded.
Anyways, tonight should be crazy! Big night of Super Tuesday action!!
Happy watching Ed and Fred.
[...] * In view of the political primaries in the U.S., Sirened answers the question “What is a delegate?“. [...]
i have really gotten into the election race this time around. i am very open to having a woman, a black man a white man or who ever i dont care if it was someone with the middle east as there backround. Just as long as they have the ability to run this great country in the right direction. but i have ran into a bunch of confusing terms and rules and hoops people have to jump through just to be able to run for office… i went to your website after typing what is a delegate into a yahoo search engine. I have to say man that i went looking for clarafiy what my question was and after reading your entry i wanted to strap a bomb to my computer and blow the shit out of it… Because now i feel this is no point of having the internet to go to for information if the best answears it can come up with for my questions is this confusing mess of a answear you have for what a delegate has…. all that i have now is more questions and alot of four letter words for yahoo becasue they led me to your site… it would be great if you could try to give me a better answear as to what a delegate really is…. Thanks
War Vet That Knows We Need Changes!!!!!!
Richard- I feel ya. I encounter the same problem all the time when I am using the internet to research stuff. There is so much crap! So what I do is take the crappy information and make more crappy information, thus increasing the size of crap on the internets.
But in all seriousness Richard, the delegate process is complicated and each side has different rules-I don’t think I made it any more complicated in my post. My #1 objective is for this site to be funny, #2 is to be informative. I try my best to do both though.
And Richard, thanks for your comment and for your service to this country.
who are the delegates ? Who gets to pick them? Why dont puplic vote % get the delegate% ? why do the voters even vote if the candidate is picked by the prechosen delegates? How can i be a delegate ?
ok, so here’s a little better help… a delegate is like a vote. Bigger states have more votes. Some states give all their votes to the winner, some split by %. A delegate is basically a vote though. Super delegates are individual people are very true to the party and contribute a percentage to the overall amount of delegate votes. so it’s like imagine 100 delegate votes from states (suppose texas has 20, CA has 50, and new york has 30, let’s assume there’s only 3 states in the US), and 30 people who are super delegates. That’s 130 total votes. For a candidate to win, they need 65. If the states vote evenly then it’s 50-50 (which is what is happening right now in the democratic primaries), but you need 65, so that’s where the super delegates come in.
rod-If you’re interested in becoming a delegate check out this site http://www.democrats.org/a/convention_2008/delegate/ Personally, I’m holding out for a potential Super Delegate role in the future. That means my “vote” counts roughly 200,000 times more than the average democrat…plebeians I say.
Adam-Good description, you chose middle ground numbers and did not include the confusing idea of duck hunters as states and dogs as Super Delegates.
[...] Learn just what is a “delegate” at Sirened. [...]
This system of choosing delegates it outrageous to our peoples intelligence. With such, they can easily be influenced by free dining, gifts, and all sorts of stuffs that will make a greedy person vote the way they could be to too.
If I were a Super Delegate I would hold out for no less than an all expenses paid trip to Sandals Jamaica.
Those Super Delegates are holding Willy Wonka-esque golden tickets right now!
I would like to thank adam for making me feel better and this site for allowing myself to see that I’m not the only American that does’nt understand all of this crazy stuff. I do know one thing and that is it ,just one, and that is this country needs to start asking itself, WHY DID OUR FOUNDING FATHERS COME HERE??? AND WHAT CAN WE DO TO FIX THIS MESS??? Are answer is in the Constitution, if any one would like to read it. IT SHOULD BE ABOUT THE PEOPLE OF THE GOOD OLD U!S!A!!! NOT POWER, MONEY OR POLITICAL BULLSHIT!!! I believe Mr.George Washington our first President would start another revolution in this country if HE could see what we have done. If you like him or not!!! Ron Paul knows the Constitution and if you are not going to start a REVOLUTION who would the man who gave us this GREAT COUNTRY vote for. We need to get back,We have gotten off track. sorry about that I don’t know where that came from. A—–MEN.
Nathan-American politics is cyclical. The last 7 years have generally been a disgusting failure and it will take time to undo the damage, that’s for sure.
But I don’t think the American people will stand for another highly corrupt administration, regardless of who wins in Nov.
It’s going to be difficult to fix the problems we face now and will face in the future, but that’s civilization for you. It’s always been this way and will continue to be this way, unless the Earth is no longer habitable of course
Alex, you are right, the dogs are the “super delegates” because they do not work and we pick up their shit. LOL
And Adam, your definition of a delegate was simple and quite helpful. Thank you both.
You’re very welcome Californian, thanks for leaving a comment.
Something stinks in Washington District of Criminals! When pass administrations were supporting Sadam, this govenment couldn’t care less how many people Sadam was torturing or murdering, it’s only when Sadam decided NOT to be a well behaved puppet that Bush family and others, not finding any wmd, said it is a ‘humanitarian cause.
Butch Rosal-Thanks for the comment. Yeah, puppets are only useless with the strings attached, once the strings come off they are worthless.
I meant they’re only “useful” not useless with the strings attached
I guess my question is regarding the delagates, what is the difference between the delegates and the electoral vote. Is delegates for the nomination and electoral for the presidency? Also, I have really been researching ALOT more about the way the voting system works this time around, and is it me, or am I finding out that the popular vote doesn’t mean that much? so, to me, the popular vote is really determining the delegates which are awarded (depending on the state). Like for instance in 2000 with Gore. He won the popular vote, but lost the electoral? I was confused, can someone explain?
Stacie, you answered some of your own questions. First one, yes.
Second, yes Gore would the popular vote in 2000 but lost in electoral votes-which is the ultimate Decider (no pun intended).
The popular vote doesn’t mean much with the republican delegates because most states are winner take all for them. It matters more with the democrats since most states portion delegates based on the percentage of votes (perhaps you were talking about this).
So now that I’ve read all of this information, I’m SUPER PISSED!! My question is, “How can we eliminate all this Delegate/Electoral bullshit? Is it possible for us to ever get rid of the extra baggage and just let the PEOPLE vote already?” How depressing, our votes really don’t matter at all. I feel like I just found out Santa Claus isn’t real.
Sara- Yes it is upsetting, Upton Sinclair once said that there are two things you don’t want to see made in life “laws and sausages.”
Democracy is a way overused word in the United States, by people and politicians, we’re a Republic, not a Democracy. And in a Republic it is “those who know best” that ultimately make the decisions.
It’s possible to get rid of the electoral college and the party delegate system but I’m not sure we’ll ever see it happen. In 4 years the Dems may even switch to a Republican style delegate system where the states are winner take all and the process is more likely to have a swifter conclusion with less states getting to vote prior.