How to Count Political Party Delegates

Are you following the U.S. elections but not understanding all the different delegate counts for the political parties? It should be more straightforward, but once you understand it you can have a good idea of the situation, even though you may not know exactly how many delegates each candidate has. Read on to learn how to count political party delegates.

Instructions

Count the Democrats

1. Start with the Democrats. To begin you must understand that delegates are the people who represent the votes for a candidate. The Democrat delegate system is more complicated than the Republican system. The delegates from each state, D.C. and Puerto Rico each get one vote. Delegates from other U.S. non-states such as the Virgin Islands may only get half a vote. The number of pledged delegates is based upon several factors including how the state voted in the last three presidential elections, percentage of votes in the Electoral College and a fixed number for non-states and Democrats abroad.

2. Count the Democrat pledged delegates. Each state has a primary or caucus that decides the number of delegates that each candidate will win. Every state varies on how these delegates are allocated, but there are no winner take-all contests in the Democrat system. You’ll just have to take what you can find listed to see how many delegates each candidate has won in a particular state. Pledged delegates don’t have to vote for their candidate but they usually do. To make matters even more complicated the actual delegates themselves are usually elected in some kind of state convention, and the number of delegates pledges for a candidate may not be the number elected at the state level.

3. Count the Democrat super-delegates. These are not delegates with capes and super powers. These super-delegates are individuals who vote for whichever candidate they personally want. There are hundreds of super-delegates but the actual number can change as they are made up from Democrat members of Congress, Democrat governors and other people picked by the party. Super-delegates may indicate whom they plan to vote for before the convention but they can change their mind without any consequences.

Count the Republicans

1. Count the Republican delegates. For the most part, Republican delegates are only pledged delegates. Each state receives a number of delegates based on the number of statewide districts, elected Republican politicians in the state, at large delegates, (10 per every state) some other factors and three party delegates which includes the chairman of the state Republican party. The three party delegates are similar to super-delegates and can vote for whom they want. Each state can decide how they allocate delegates. Some do winner take all on their primaries, others do winner take all by district and still others use different formulas. So you can count what is reported by each state primary and caucus and get a good idea of how many delegates a candidate has. Again the actual delegates are not elected until some kind of statewide convention, but these delegates seem more committed to vote for the candidate who won them then so for the Democrat system.