US Elections 2008

Superdelegate Constance Borde weighs the importance of her vote

by Barbara Giudice

Article published on the 2008-06-03 Latest update 2008-10-21 13:02 TU

Superdelegate Constance Borde

The superdelegates have played an important role in the run-up to the Democratic convention. They were solicited by both frontrunners as the primary season wore on. Constance Borde is a superdelegate for Democrats Abroad in France. Superdelegates for Democrats who live abroad have half a vote at the Democratic convention. 

Although Constance Borde came to France 40 years ago, she says that she has never wanted to get involved in French politics.

"They are too partisan," she says. "It’s pure party politics. The Democratic Party is much more oriented to issues politics.” 

Borde, who is married to a Frenchman and has six children, says that she got into American politics some 30 years ago, even as she was raising her children, teaching English and American Culture at the prestigious French school, la Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, and writing books on grammar.

In 1988 she worked on the Dukakis campaign.  Borde, who is vice-chair of Democrats Abroad in France, has served a term as chair as well.  Democrats Abroad is involved in getting Americans living outside the United States to vote. They also campaign, help voters register and hold meetings in their homes to discuss the issues. 

Borde says that as a party official she was automatically a superdelegate this year, but it was only as the campaign drew on that the superdelegates began to realise that they could become a determining factor in the selection of the Democratic candidate. 

She and the other delegates began questioning what their role sould be. 

"We started e-mailing each other because everyone felt the way I did.  What is this responsibility that's being put on my shoulders?" she says.

There was reluctance to take on that responsibility and a consensus seemed to be developing that the people should decide.

"I could see from the superdelegates' e-mail discussions [we were all saying]: what are we going to do if this decision falls on us?" Borde says. "Do we vote for the person we like?  Do we vote for the person who our constituency is voting for?  Do we wait, hold off to see the way the popular vote is going? .... There is no rulebook.  Superdelegates are free to do whatever they want."

Like other superdelegates, she decided  to wait and see which way the popular vote was going before committing.

"I liked Barack Obama," Borde said.  "But I never pledged my vote to him.  But when Democrats Abroad in France voted 71 per cent for Barack Obama ... I started thinking that I was justified if I wanted to pledge my vote."  

Borde has just finished a new translation, with Sheila Malonany Chevallier, of Simone de Beauvoir’s Second Sex.