IS it just me? I don’t see a 12 to 11 vote number/ratio/delegate/whatever in that link at all.
Scroll to NH.
• There are currently 4,049 total delegates to the Democratic National Convention, including 3,253 pledged delegates and 796 superdelegates. The total number of delegate votes needed to win the nomination is 2,025.
• Superdelegates in the Democratic Party are typically members of the Democratic National Committee, elected officials like senators or governors, or party leaders. They do not have to indicate a candidate preference and do not have to compete for their position. If a superdelegate dies or is unable to participate at the convention, alternates do not replace that delegate, which would reduce the total delegates number and the “magic number” needed to clinch the nomination.
..........................................................
Also see this link-
Obama won 9 delegates and also has 3 superdelagates for a total of 12 ... vs ClinTOON’s 11
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/candidates/#1918
The delegates selected to the Democratic convention by party officials are called Super Delegates.
This system started after McGovern won the primary elections and lost the 1972 election big time. 1972 was a Richard Nixon blow out landslide that nearly equaled FDRs 1936 win.In 1936 FDR got 60.8 percent of the vote for the biggest win of the 20th century. Nixon won 60.7 percent of the votes in 1972.
By the way the 1972 polls did not show the Nixon blow out. At one point they had McGovern winning.
The Democratic party decided that leaving it all up to the voters was not a good way to win elections.. So they only let the voters select 80 percent of the delegates to their convention and let the party officials select the remaining 20 percent. Thus a Democratic candidate can win a close primary election and still not get a majority of that states delegates to the Democratic convention.
Democratic Bosses felt that had the Party Officials have controlled 20 percent of the delegates at the 1972 convention they could have prevented the Democratic voters from nominating McGovern!
Republicans do not have super delegates. If a Republican candidate wins a states primary he gets the majority of that states convention delegates. In the Republican party the party leaders can not over rule the voters.
It is possible for a Republican to come in second in every primary race and yet win enough delegates to win the nomination on the first ballot. All it takes is the state elections be close and different candidates to come in first while the same candidate always comes in second.