Posting for a friend - a newly minted Sanders delegate from an island in Puget Sound.

[Stinky The Clown]

I am posting this for him. That is the long and short of my involvement. I have been steadfastly neutral this entire primary season and intend to remain so. My friend is a real liberal, a lot like me in his views. I would not be posting this for him were he otherwise.

I have zero hidden/locked posts and I hope you all will remain civil as this thread goes forward. Have fun and play nice. We're all in this together.

FYI; At our caucus here on a small island in the State of Washington this past Saturday (3/26/16), our precinct was alloted 6 delegates that will then proceed to "the next level" witch is to be our county convention. Bernie Sanders won our precinct (34-27) with 56% of the vote, over 25% MORE votes than Hillary Clinton. Our precinct captain, acting under DNC rules, then proceeded to rounded UP Clintons vote while at the same time rounding DOWN Sanders votes! The end result was that each candidate was awarded three (3) delegates. Our caucus was NOT split! It was a clear majority for Bernie yet the record will show a 50/50 tie. Imagine this same scenario going on in hundreds of precincts. If every precinct has been apportioned an even number of delegates, then wins can easily become "ties" and it will be near impossible for Bernie to make up any delegate count on Hillary. I see this as nothing more than a "parlor trick " designed to disenfranchise voters. The State of Washington has yet to apportion well over 50 State Delegates, but those that decide on how to apportion them (local delegates) are not an accurate representation of the local vote. Imagine a football game that ends with a final score of 34-27... now imagine the referees huddling in the middle of the field and determining that the game will be recorded as a tie. In this scenario, Hillary Clinton is the loosing team with 27 points, but when you factor in that she was awarded a tie, as well as plenty of Super Delegates, she is easily the winner. The caucus/convention system has many layers, each of which can (and does) subvert the will of the voters. Here in Washington State, voters rejected the caucus system by creating the primary with a state initiative in 1989, yet the Seattle Times reports that the State Democratic Party decided to ignore primary results (one person, one vote) in favor of continuing the caucus system in order to "give more sway to party activists." We now have a convoluted caucus followed by a meaningless primary - confusing?? You bet.
Am I wrong in my dissatisfaction with this? Is this in any way conducive to a healthy democracy? Am I missing something?
If so, please respond... ~R

[DanTex]

1. Don't know what the rules are, but...

Looks like Bernie got 34/61 = 55.7% of the vote. Since there were 6 delegates to be assigned, 3-3 was 50% Bernie, whereas 4-2 would have been 66.7% Bernie. Which means 3-3 is closer to the actual vote percentages. So it's not really that outlandish.

[PatrickforO]

2. Well, I love Bernie, and am very passionately in favor of him.

That said, unfortunately, here's the math:

You have six delegates to award.
61 people voted.
Hillary got 27 votes
Bernie got 34 votes

Now here's the math:
27/61 = .442623
34/61 = .557377

0.442623 X 61 = 2.655738
0.557377 X 61 = 3.344262

You have six delegates. Therefore, you MUST use rounding.

2.655 is rounded up to 3
3.34 is rounded down to 3

Sorry, Stinky's friend. The math done at the caucus was correct. Had the vote for Bernie been slightly higher, say 40 votes for instead of only 34, then his percentage of the six delegates would have gone up to 0.655738 and the resultant multiplier would be 3.9, while Hillary would have 21 votes and a multiplier of 2.1. Rounding would then give Bernie 4 and Hillary 2.

But, alas, the results were so close and the number of delegates so small that the delegates were split 3-3. Again, this is correct.

[Mr Know-It-All]

3. So, he needs a super majority...

I think what's being described here is that as long as the DNC Party bosses keep allocating even numbers of delegates per precinct, one would need to win a "super majority" (60%) in order to pick up a single pledged delegate. Requiring a super majority is a defensive tactic designed to keep
An opposition at bay...