2008 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE SELECTION PROCESS
THE DEMOCRATS
The Democrats tend to do things the same way in every state, which makes it much easier to describe how things work
THE BASICS
The Democratic National Convention will be in Denver at the end of August; this
is when the delegates selected at the caucuses and primaries will get together
and vote to see who will be the Democratic Party nominee for President.
(Well, they "elect" the nominee for Vice-President as well, but it's always
"whoever the Presidential nominee wants it to be.")
Each state (except maybe for Florida and Michigan - see below), as well as DC
and some of the territories, gets a certain number of delegates based mainly on
what percentage of the total Democratic vote in the last three elections (Bill
Clinton in 1996, Al Gore in 2000, and John Kerry in 2004) came from that state,
as well as what percentage of the 538 electoral votes in 2004 came from
that state (but only if they went to Kerry). Each state that has its primary or caucus in April gets a 5%
bonus in its delegates; each state that has it in May or June gets a 10% bonus.
(The bonuses are tripled if the state had its 2004 primary or caucus in March or
earlier.)
About 2/3 of these delegates are assigned directly to Congressional districts;
these are called "district delegates." The other 1/3 are assigned to the
entire state; these are called "statewide," or "at-large," delegates.
District delegates are allocated to candidates based only on votes within that
district; statewide delegates are allocated based on the statewide vote totals.
These delegates are called "pledged" delegates, as they are pledged to vote for
a specific candidate at the national convention. There are also
"unpledged" delegates, or "superdelegates," who can vote for anybody they want.
Each state gets a number of superdelegates (usually, these positions are given
to top people in that state's Democratic Committee); in addition, all Democrats
who are in the House of Representatives, Senators, state Governors, or
Democratic National Committee members, as well as other high-ranking officials
(including former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and former
Vice-Presidents Walter Mondale and Al Gore), are automatically superdelegates.
Most states assign their delegates to candidates through either a primary or a caucus.
CAUCUSES
Democratic party caucuses in each state are pretty much all run the same
way, so here's a description of how Iowa does it.
The state is divided up into "precincts" (usually voting precincts - that is,
the areas where all of the people who live in the same area go to the same place
to vote). At a specified time on caucus day (in Iowa, 7:00 PM Mountain
time on January 3), each precinct begins its caucus. Up on the walls of
wherever the caucus is taking place are signs for each Democratic candidate; for
example, there might be a sign for Hillary Clinton, one for Barack Obama, one
for John Edwards, maybe one for Joe Biden, possibly even one for anybody who
still wants Al Gore to run for President in 2008, and so on. There is also
a sign for "Uncommitted". All of the people at the caucus site who support
a candidate go stand underneath their candidate's sign.
Once everybody is underneath a sign, a head count is taken. Any candidate,
including "uncommitted," that does not have at least 15% of the people at that
caucus has a few minutes for its supporters to join other candidates' groups or
to try to merge with other groups to reach the 15% minimum. After a
certain length of time, any candidate still without at least 15% must have its
supporters join groups that do have 15%.
Here's the confusing part; the caucus isn't electing delegates to the national
convention - it's electing delegates to the next level of caucus (in Iowa's
case, the county caucuses). Each precinct gets a predetermined number of
county caucus delegates, which are divided among the candidates based on how
many supporters they have, although each candidate remaining at this point is
guaranteed at least one delegate. The county caucuses work pretty much the
same way, electing delegates to the Congressional district caucuses. The
Congressional district caususes work like the county caucuses, except that in
addition to electing delegates to the state convention, they elect the
district's delegates to the national convention. The state convention then
selects the state's statewide delegates for the national convention.
(Any delegates who are pledged to "uncommitted" can vote for anybody they want
at the national convention, as if they were "superdelegates.")
PRIMARIES
A primary is a vote - everybody goes to a polling place, casts a secret ballot,
and puts it into a ballot box, and when the polls close, the votes are counted.
Easy.
Each district's district delegates are allocated to candidates who get at least
15% of the vote in that district, in proportion to how many votes the candidate
got in that district.
The state's statewide delegates are allocated to candidates who get at least 15%
of the total statewide vote, in proportion to how many votes the candidate got
statewide.
I KEEP HEARING SOMETHING ABOUT "WINNER TAKE ALL" - WHAT'S THAT?
That only applies to the Republicans. In a "winner take all" primary, all
of the state's delegates would go to whoever got the most votes in the state,
just as in most states in the November election, all of the state's electoral
votes go to whoever gets the most votes in that state. The Democrats do
not allow winner take all primaries or caucuses.
WHAT'S THIS ABOUT FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN?
A number of states used to hold their primaries in May and June (some still do).
However, they noticed that by the time their primaries took place, it was
already clear who the nominee would be; even if the leader did not have enough
delegates to get the nomination yet, the other candidates had stopped
campaigning, and nobody took the state's primary seriously. In order to
"fix" this, they moved their primaries up to February. Both parties made
rules saying that, unless they had special permission, no state could have a
primary before the first Tuesday in February; this is why that date is now
"Super Tuesday" (since a lot of large states, including California and New York,
have primaries on that date). Florida and Michigan decided that they would
have their primaries in January anyway; the Democratic Party punished the states
by saying that their delegates would not be allowed into the national convention
in Denver. (Both states plan on appealing the decision to something called
the "convention credentials committee," but this probably won't work unless one
candidate has enough delegates from other states to get the nomination without
Florida or Michigan, making their votes irrelevant anyway.)
WHAT HAPPENS IN DENVER IF NOBODY HAS A MAJORITY OF THE DELEGATES?
They take another vote - and keep voting until somebody does. Note that
each state has its own rules as to how many times a pledged delegate has to vote
for their candidate; also, if there is a second vote, any candidates who realize
they have no chance of winning will "release" their delegates, and they then
become superdelegates.
(Between you and me, if a second vote is needed, what will happen is, the two or
three candidates who are in the lead will get together and work out some sort of
deal. If too many votes are needed, it sends a sign that the Democrats
can't control themselves, so how can they run the country properly?)