Thursday, January 17, 2008
When a superdelegate isn’t so super
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At DemConWatch we strive to be the most accurate source for delegate counts.
While going over our numbers we realized that we had too many superdelegates listed. With the addition of the 76 add-on superdelegates that haven’t been selected yet our total was greater than the 796 superdelegates available.
After a little digging we discovered that some superdelegates aren’t as super as the others. Democrats Abroad, American Samoa, Guam, the Virgin Islands, Washington DC and Puerto Rico will all send delegates and superdelegates to the convention. However Democrats Abroad’s superdelegates only count for 1/2 a vote.
Update: We incorrectly identified Guam, American Samoa and the Virgin Islands as having 1/2 votes. Democrats Abroad are the only ones whose superdelegates only have 1/2 a vote. Thanks to a commenter we have corrected this.
Posted by Oreo at 3:10 PM 
Democrats Abroad superdelegates however only have 1/2 a vote.
Thanks for your help!
We don’t have to accept this super delegate selective process. We have been casting out votes and it seems the merit system awards delegates. Yet the Democrats have tried to disenfranchise our votes with the superdelegate, and I challenge that it should be abolished. It is not practiced by the Republicans, because they are educated enough to know it is crooked and deceitful.
Anonymous is right; the superdelegate process is blatantly antidemocratic and hypocritical for a party calling itself “Democratic”, the way East Germany was “Democratic”. All decisions of the people have to await ratification by the Politburo. If the superdelegates swing the nomination to someone who does not have a majority of the popular vote, there will be hell to pay. Several things can happen:
1. Chaos at the convention, damaging the nominee going into the general election – this is certain.
2. The superdelegates currently in office (governors, Congress, etc.) who go against the people’s wishes could be held accountable next election.
3. The splitting off of the party into two factions – the old guard that doesn’t trust the people (Terry McCauliff, etc.) and another, much smaller, faction that will actually be democratic in fact as well as name. This will be the most damaging and a real godsend to the Republicans.
4. Disaffected Democrats will vote Republican out of protest in the general election. I plan to be one of those if any candidate, even my own, is nominated without a popular mandate.
The superdelegate system has to go just as the electoral college should. It is an elitist tool that has no place in a modern, democratic society.
Too be fair, the winner take all system of the Republicans is also undemocratic since it is essentially the electoral college on a party scale. Both parties should award delegates strictly on a popular basis, without giving the entrenched party establishment the last word at the expense of we the people.
Each super delegate vote equals ten thousand of ʻWe the Peopleʻ votes. So 900 super delegates multiplied by 10,000 equals NINE MILLION VOTES. This is completely undemocratic. Abolish it, DNC!