Superdelegates: How 796 People Will Vote For Millions

One year ago, CNN senior political analyst Bill Schneider forecasted that Super Tuesday would decide the nominees for the 2008 presidential election. For Republicans, this is somewhat true. Governor Mitt Romney's departure (pictured on the left) after a poor performance on Super Tuesday effectively narrowed the field of candidates to two. Though Mike Huckabee remains in the race, John McCain leads overwhelmingly in delegate counts and is on track to become the party's nominee. In the Democratic race, twenty-two states and one U.S. territory made their way to the polls, with 1,681 of the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the nomination at stake. The results of Super Tuesday were much less decisive for Democrats, showing a relatively even split of support for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Chris Cillizza of The Fix points out that both the Clinton and Obama camps have released statements manipulating the data to highlight their triumphs and build momentum for the fast-approaching primaries in other states. Though Obama carried some of this through to Saturday, winning in Louisiana, Nebraska, and Washington, the race is still up the air. As The Caucus reports, Obama and Clinton moved right along to Maine to court voters for Sunday's caucus with thirty delegates at stake; Obama won thirteen of the delegates while Clinton won nine. The battle will continue into Tuesday when the two candidates will battle for delegates in Washington D.C., Virginia, and Maryland.

Because Super Tuesday did not secure a nominee or force one contender to quit, it has shaped the primary into an extraordinarily democratic one, effectively mobilizing the nation in unprecedented ways. Whereas in past years the nominee could be named before some states even conducted primaries or caucuses, earning the nomination in a tight race such as this requires candidates to spend time actively campaigning across the country, reaching out to geographically diverse voters. Staggered primary elections afford candidates time to build up the massive funds and resources required to campaign heavily in each state and ultimately win. Every delegate has become crucial for victory, and campaigns have literally fashioned a mathematical equation for victory. The repercussions have been resoundingly positive; thus far, records have been broken for voter turnout in several states. In the immediate aftermath of Super Tuesday, the fund raising arms race between Clinton and Obama has inspired hundreds of thousands of small-donors to contribute. According to Hillary Clinton's website, between Tuesday and Friday night, Clinton raised $10 million from over 100,000 donors largely through online contributions. Additional debates are also scheduled to take place this month, further engaging, informing, and involving voters. Successful mobilization is undeniable. However, despite the numerous strides for democratic elections in the 2008 primaries, superdelegates threaten to render the 2008 Democratic nomination unfair and undemocratic.

If neither Senator Clinton, nor Senator Obama acquires 2,025 delegates by June 3rd, when South Dakota and Montana hold the final primaries, then the nomination will have to wait until the Democratic National Convention. At the convention, held on August 25th held in Denver, Colorado, 796 unpledged delegates from 50 states and U.S. territories will give one candidate the final push into securing the nomination. While pledged delegates represent the votes of millions of Americans, unpledged or superdelegates are unrestricted in how they decide to cast their vote. California, for example, will send 441 pledged delegates to represent the votes of 8.9 million people while 796 unpledged delegates will represent only themselves. Of the entire delegation, representing millions of votes cast in all states and territories, these unpledged delegates will make up an astounding 20% of all votes.

Some people might argue for the super moral character, super representational abilities or super judgment of these superdelegates. After all, they are Democratic governors, members of Congress, Democratic National Committee members, former presidents and vice-presidents, and other prominent party members. The problem is that they have no contractual obligations or guidelines for voting. Courting by quid pro quo arrangements with candidates is perfectly legal. In addition, these superdelegates may have strong personal ties to the candidates -- Bill Clinton is a superdelegate, shown on the right campaigning for Hillary Clinton -- and nothing in the DNC's rules addresses this issue. Even voting in an objective way is difficult. Should these candidates, as Barack Obama suggests, vote based upon their state and constituents' sentiments? Or, should they vote as Hillary Clinton argues just with their conscience? Either way, these 796 delegates could not possibly represent the millions of voters across the country. Especially in states like Utah with few Democratic elected officials, even if superdelegates voted with their constituencies, voters would be drastically underrepresented. And if we rely on the sound judgment of the superdelegates, we are still in essence privileging 796 insiders to make a decision for the entire nation. Some endorsements have already been publicly announced -- you can decide whether your state's superdelegates are representative of your vote -- and delegate projections from AP shows the impact of their inclusion in the delegate counts. Superdelegates are not bound to these endorsements and can reverse them at their whims. For unbound delegates who still remain unclaimed and unsolicited, campaigns have fashioned sophisticated plans to court and woo them with tactics such as highly persuasive phone calls from high-profile Democrats and close friends.

Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama may end up picking up enough delegates to secure the nomination before June, and superdelegates may not end up playing a significant role in the outcome. Democrats should nevertheless turn their attention to this system, which is chipping away at the value of votes in our democracy. Concerned Democrats should urge the Democratic National Committee to revise this backward system of unpledged delegates, or at the very least, impose restrictions on their impact in the nomination. It may be too late to salvage 2008 for voters, but with enough support, we may be able to prevent party insiders from taking the elections out of our hands in the future.