7,145,011 Voters

[Tom Rinaldo]

Seven million, one hundred and forty five, and eleven citizens. That's how many Americans cast their ballots in the 2016 Democratic primaries that were held this year in the following eight states: New Hampshire, Georgia, North Carolina, Vermont, Michigan, Arizona, Illinois, and Massachusetts. Those 7,145,011 citizens in those eight states collectively got to decide how to divide up 716 pledged delegates, between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, to the Democratic Convention that will be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania this summer.

Somewhere between 715 and 719 unpledged delegates (commonly known as superdelegates) will also cast a vote at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. They get to decide for themselves who they want to elect to be the Democratic Party presidential nominee. Each one of them has roughly as much say in that decision as ten thousand regular voters who went to the trouble of voting in the eight primaries listed above. Ten superdelegates will collectively have more influence choosing the Democratic nominee than everyone who voted in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary. One hundred and twenty of those individuals will collectively have more influence in that decision than everyone who voted in the Michigan Democratic Primary.

Of those 715 to 719 unpledged delegates, 435 are elected members of the Democratic National Committee (including the chairs and vice-chairs of each state's Democratic Party). Those 435 individuals, who did not have to run for any public office in order to earn their upcoming power at Philadelphia, will have more power at the Convention than the delegates selected by all of the primary voters of Illinois, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Tennessee combined.

Here is how the race for the nomination currently stands with delegates pledged to one of the Democratic candidates:

Hillary Clinton 1,243
Bernie Sanders 980

Here is how the race for the nomination currently stands with unpledged superdelegates:

Hillary Clinton 469
Bernie Sanders 31

Aren't you glad that we are talking about the Democratic Party?

[zbartz]

1. 15.3 million votes

Hillary Clinton - 8,924,821
Bernie Sanders - 6,397,980



Clinton +2,526,841

[SheilaT]

3. So far.

You are aware that not all of the states have voted yet, right?

[Gwhittey]

5. And not all States

Record individual votes. So almost 1/2 of states do not use popular votes. But people sure like that vote number.

[Old Codger]

6. 6 Posts

13 years ??

[Tom Rinaldo]

7. That is a totally invald statistic

I explain it for you here:

"About Hillary's boast about being 2.5 million popular votes ahead of Bernie"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511622697

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. keep using that line now, cause in a few weeks it will no longer be in her favor

[dana_b]

2. and how many millions and millions are left to vote??

Good thing that we ALL get a say, even if it is only 1/10000 as good as other peoples' votes.

Unless of course there is disenfranchisement - like voter rolls that have changed voters' registration status or if people get the wrong information on when/where to vote or if precincts are diminished so much that people have to wait 5+ hours to vote.

All of those things are definitely UN Democratic. I'm sure that everyone agrees upon that.

[Agschmid]

4. The turn out is always so embarrassing.

[eridani]

9. Superdelegates way back when

[Gothmog]

10. Super delegates are most concern about the party as a whole

Maybe if Sanders showed some concern about the Democratic Party, he might be more successful in flipping super delegates. Please give your analysis to the super delegates you want to flip. They will enjoy it.

[Tom Rinaldo]

11. In theory

In theory our elected representatives to Congress are most concerned about the interests of the citizens of their districts rather than of any powerful special interests also. Lots of things look great in theory. Why not just let superdelegates select our candidates for us, more like it was done in the good old days when voters didn't expect to choose our candidates by voting for them ourselves? If unlike individual voters SD's have all of our interests in mind, we can save a lot of money by just doing away with primaries.

There is nothing sacred about the current system the Democratic Party uses, it can and has been changed before. If you are comfortable with Party officials - not even elected public office holders, having more influence than all of the primary voters in Illinois, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Tennessee combined then you probably like the way it works now. I guess we just disagree on that.

[Gothmog]

12. How many super delegates do you know?

I know a few and they all got this position either by being elected to Congress or working for decades inside the party. If you want to change the system, try working within the party

[Tom Rinaldo]

14. I'm the Chair of my Township's Democratic Committee actually

My nuts and bolts work on behalf of the Democratic Party has been confined to the local level but sure I've met some SD's. My feelings about the system remain the same.

[Gothmog]

22. Have you been to a state convention? Have you ever voted for or met a member of the DNC?

I know a dozen or so super delegates and they are all hard line party types who have been working inside the party for decades. I like the super delegates who I know and would love to watch a bernie bro try to flip these delegates

[JackRiddler]

16. That is not democracy.

Maybe you think it's just, because it's important to make sure that the Democratic party can't be changed by democracy. Perhaps democracy is not the highest value, perhaps you think something like organizational continuity matters more, etc. etc. But then you should be honest about it.

Maybe you think working for a corrupt system for decades should qualify people to have more say and not be able to switch out their corrupted politicians.

This attitude that all is well of course extends to the entire political class, not just the Democratic nomenklatura who have been serving up the corporate neoliberalism with disastrous results for more than 30 years.

[Gothmog]

21. I am a member of the Democratic Party

Remember that Sanders only hope is to convince super delegates to vote for him even though Clinton has more popular votes.
Good luck with that

[JackRiddler]

23. Do you put that before citizen? Resident of the world?

That may be why you are satisfied to think of the killers of FDR's politics as "Democratic," to congregate now for the destroyer of Libya, the defender of fracking, ironically enough the former hunter of "superpredators.

You are also a premature counter of things that haven't happened yet. We'll talk again after June 14.

A "Democratic Party" that has no interest in anything but its own organizational predominance is dooming itself, of course.

[Buns_of_Fire]

13. For the morbidly curious:

Alvin Chang at Vox published a complete list (or as complete as possible) of all the SuperDupers: http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2016/2/22/11070364/list-all-superdelegates

The Sunlight Foundation is attempting to determine which are lobbyists: https://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2016/02/25/help-us-track-which-democratic-superdelegates-are-lobbyists/

And Lee Fang at the Intercept got them started with his article: https://theintercept.com/2016/02/17/voters-be-damned/ (Some interesting names on there!)

[JackRiddler]

15. Less than the population of New York City.

[geek tragedy]

17. Only elected officials should act as superdelegates, that would lead to a more sensible

number as well as still making sure that the superdelegates are accountable to voters.

Also, allow people to just vote at caucuses instead of having to stand around and argue and all that crap. Just let them use a paper ballot.

[Tom Rinaldo]

18. I agree on both counts. We have consensus!

Between the two of us anyway

[geek tragedy]

19. which means all reasonable people agree!

[JackRiddler]

20. Which ones?

There are way more than 742 D elected officials. But I guess you mean no lobbyists, rainmakers or petty machine bosses who aren't actually elected. We can agree on that! I think a case can be made only for current House members. It's a federal election and they represent their districts. Even better would be if they were automatically included as pledged delegates. (i.e., they have to stand as pledged delegates and if a candidate doesn't get any and they are thus excluded, too bad!)