Well, the word is finally in from the Democrats Abroad. They voted between 2/5 and 2/12, but the tallies are just in. They are allotted 11 delegates. Of those, four are "superdelegates." Seven are actual delegates. As overseas Democrats, however, they appoint 14 pledged delegates, each getting half a vote. This is because of a combination of mathematical gobbledygook too tedious to try to understand. The primary awards 9 delegates, the other five are awarded at the larger global caucuses to follow. Why Democrats Abroad would need a multistage process is beyond the ability of mere mortals to fathom. The results of the 9 awarded today? 5 for Obama, 4 for Clinton. This follows, somehow, the fact that Obama won by nearly two to one. Don't try to figure that one out either. So Obama gets 2.5 delegate votes, Clinton gets 2. Advantage, Obama? I wonder if AP and the NY Times are going to accurately report this or not.
There is no "Republicans Abroad" category. Probably because they think that ex-pats are all traitors or something. The Democrats Abroad say that one of the main reasons for the group to exist is that overseas voters cannot caucus. Interesting thought, that.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Solomon Awards Half a Delegate
Posted by The Law Talking Guy at 7:00 AM
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2 comments:
That's annoying! I mean, really, if you're going to run a proportional primary, you should at least try to hand out delegates proportionally. (In which case 3 to 1.5 would have been the proper split.)
This is hardly a unique feature of the Democrats Abroad, unfortunately. From what I have seen, margins of victory have almost always been greater in terms of popular vote than delegate count, largely because it goes by congressional district or county or something like that.
It seems that the Democratic Party has moved from "Winner Take All" systems to "Everybody Wins." Jesus. I'm surprised they didn't give half a vote to Mike Gravel, just because they could.
John McCain will win the Republican nomination handily even though he has rarely broken 50% of the vote. His party is not unified, even though its delegates are. The Democratic party system means that a winning candidate has to bust through the 50% level to get a majority of delegates. That's now happening regularly in the Democratic party. So the party will be more unified in the end.
The strange delegate split probably relates to the fact that delegates are awarded by proportionally region rather than directly proportionally overall. There is another set of 5 delegates to be divided proportionally (2-1 in this case). Either way, it's odd.
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