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RandySF

(58,755 posts)
Thu Jun 2, 2016, 09:52 AM Jun 2016

Bernie Sanders’s ‘factually incorrect’ delegate math

Sanders has complained regularly about the “absurd” system used in the Democratic Party presidential nomination process — a combination of 4,051 delegates elected through primaries and caucuses and then 714 “superdelegates,” who are elected officials, former elected officials and other eminence grises of the Democratic Party who can back whomever they want.

Hillary Clinton is on track to win a majority of the pledged delegates, almost certainly by June 7. But because superdelegates make up 15 percent of the total delegate pool, neither Clinton nor Sanders can obtain the 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the nomination without the support of superdelegates.

But the irony is that without the superdelegate system in place, Sanders likely would be toast on June 7, when six states essentially complete the primary process, including California with its 475 delegates. (There is also a vote on June 14 in D.C. to award 20 delegates.) So Sanders is complaining about a system that is actually keeping hope alive for his supporters, on the theory that superdelegates can change their vote any time before the convention starts in late July. But it’s a false hope.




https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2016/06/02/bernie-sanderss-factually-incorrect-delegate-math/

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Bernie Sanders’s ‘factually incorrect’ delegate math (Original Post) RandySF Jun 2016 OP
Oh those pesky rules that have been in place for some time. tonyt53 Jun 2016 #1
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