Winning Delegates is Complicated Process

Wednesday, February 6, 2008
Topics: Politics
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Yesterday's Super Tuesday contests, in which about 52 percent of the total delegates were won, were a major skirmish in the battle for both party's presidential nominations. The battle continues March 4 in Ohio, where 249 delegates are at stake. ideastream® politcs reporter Kymberli Hagelberg explains how the delegate process works.

Selecting and then wooing presidential delegates has been called the “invisible primary”, but the system is more complicated than mysterious.

Each party works differently. Most Republican delegates are awarded according to congressional and state totals. It’s winner take all - whichever candidate gets the most votes in a district gets wins everything, and the winner of the most districts receives all of Ohio’s 88 Republican delegates. All that is, except two. These are reserved for members of the Republican National Committee, who can choose as they like.

Democrats also select district and state delegates, but their numbers are assigned proportionally. The idea is to account for a diversity of support, so if one candidate gets forty nine percent of a district with four delegates, that candidate would come away with two. To earn a proportional share a candidate must get at least 15 percent of the vote.
About a quarter of Ohio’s 161 democratic delegates are party officials and big city politicians, like Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson. These “super” delegates don’t have to declare their support until after the primary—which eliminates the political fallout of having backed a loser.

Kymberli Hagelberg, 90.3.