Delegate Math

Votes won don't always translate into delegates secured

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Winning the popular vote in a single primary election or a caucus is not enough to win the presidential nomination. Becoming the Democratic or Republican nominee is mostly about the total number of delegates a candidate wins from each state's primary or caucus.

For Democratic candidates, that means winning 2,025 of a possible 4,049 delegate votes. For Republican hopefuls, that means securing 1,191 of 2,380 votes.
 
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The path to the nomination is unique in each political party. Although it's every candidate's goal to win every state, being the runner-up also has its rewards for Democratic contenders. That's because the percentage of popular votes won determines how many delegates each candidate is given.

So if a runner-up candidate finishes in second place with 25 percent of the vote, he or she will receive 25 percent of the delegates.

However, Democratic candidates who receive less than 15 percent of the popular vote do not qualify to win any delegates. Instead, his or her delegates are split up among the candidates who do qualify.

It can get confusing. For example, although Hillary Clinton won the Nevada caucuses with a majority vote, because of the way the delegates were split in rural areas, Barack Obama was awarded one more delegate than Clinton. Obama received 13 delegates, while Clinton, who was declared the winner, received 12.

Republican Math
           
On the Republican side, the national party does not require a 15 percent minimum share of the popular vote to win delegates. State parties can impose a minimum, however. While the percentage of the popular vote won does dictate how many delegate votes are awarded in some states, other states employ a "winner-takes-all" system. These variations make keeping up with candidates' delegate tallies tough for the media, the political parties and the candidates.

To Pledge or Not to Pledge

The Democratic Party has two kinds of delegates: pledged and superdelegates. Pledged delegates are elected or selected on the state and local level with the idea that they will vote for a specific candidate at the party convention. The vast majority of delegates (3,253) are pledged, while the remaining 796 are classified as superdelegates.

Superdelegates are traditionally members of Congress, Governors, national committee members, and other politicians. They neither have to pledge their support for a particular candidate, nor do they have to be elected as a delegate.         

A total of 1,917 Republican delegates are pledged. And like their Democratic counterparts, they are elected or selected on the state or local level. They, too, must specify their preference for an individual candidate. The remaining 463 unpledged delegates do not have to reveal which candidate they favor.  A Controversial 2008 SeasonLong before the first delegates were awarded in Iowa on January 3, controversy had already touched the 2008 presidential primary season.

Last year, the national Republican and Democratic parties punished a handful of states that defied orders not to move up the dates of their primaries. In an effort to have more influence on the selection of the presidential nominees, Michigan, South Carolina, and Florida held their primaries earlier than usual. Their strategy, however, backfired.

The Democrats stripped Michigan of all 156 of its delegates. Michigan, which traditionally holds its primary on Super Tuesday (this year, February 5) along with more than 20 other states, pushed its primary date up to January 15. (Similarly, Florida lost 210 delegates for moving up its primary to January 29.)  So while Hillary Clinton won 58 percent of the popular vote in Michigan, she did not receive a single delegate. The Republicans decided not to hand down such a harsh punishment, but they did strip Michigan, South Carolina, and Florida of half their delegates. So Michigan winner, Mitt Romney, was awarded just 30 delegates instead of the usual 60. Only 24 of out South Carolina's 47 delegates were at stake on January 19. The Florida winner will be awarded just 57 out of a possible 114 delegates.

This year's primary season will come to a close on June 7. Democratic delegates will formally select their nominee for president in August in Denver, Colorado. Republican delegates will nominate their chosen candidate in September in Minneapolis, Minnesota. While most political watchers expect the nominations to be all-but-sewn-up right after Super Tuesday, they could go down to the wire due to tight races between top-notch candidates on both sides of the political fence.

Karen Fanning is a contributing writer for Scholastic News Online.

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