US elections 2008

Democratic Party nomination - how does it work?

by Barbara Giudice

Article published on the 2008-04-23 Latest update 2008-06-13 14:09 TU

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
(Photo : Reuters)

Two thousand one hundred eighteen delegates were needed to win the Democratic Party nomination. The caucuses and primaries determine the pledged delegates to the convention, while superdelegates, who are members who hold elected public office and party officials, are not pledged to any candidate, and can vote at the convention as they like.  Usually, as the results from the primaries become clear, they rally around the leading candidate.   

While the first-past-the-post system in the Republican primaries means that delegates from a state all vote the same way, under Democratic Party rules delegates in the primaries and caucuses are designated proportionately.

The Democratic popular vote nationwide this year was split down the middle.  While a winner-take-all system would have decided the vote much earlier, the proportional system reflected the voter divide almost to the end of the primaries in early June. 

In the middle of the primary race, Jon Cohen, chief pollster for the Washington Post, said that Democratic voters seemed happy with the long process, even if the party leaders wanted the nominee to be designated earlier. 

"Democratic voters really seem content to let it continue," he said. "Only a third say it is either helping or not making a difference at all. So you have a real disjuncture between Democratic voters and the party elites." 

The delegates, elected in primaries and caucuses since January, and 796 so called "superdelegates", will meet at the Democratic convention from 25-28 August officially to vote in the candidate chosen by voters in the primaries.