We just had the Nevada primary and while news reports show that Hillary Clinton won the popular vote, the fact remains that in a primary election what matters is how many delegates each candidate won.
Believe it or not, Barack Obama won Nevada with 13 delegates won over Clinton's 12. And it is ultimately important how many delegates are going to vote for your candidacy at the national convention that really matter.
How can someone win more delegates if they lost the popular vote? First off, every state is different in how they allow primary elections to be run. For example, with the primaries held in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan (which had all it's delegates revoked due to violating a party rule), and Nevada, delegates are allocated either in proportion of the vote (if you win 60% of the vote you get roughly 60% of the state's delegates) or delegates are won on a district or county basis as is the case in Nevada (win popular vote in a county with 5 delegates, you win all 5 delegates). Some states are winner take all such as Florida, making it a real battleground.
According to MSNBC.com, Barack Obama won much of the northern half of Nevada (Reno) while Clinton had won much of the southern half (Las Vegas). Northern Nevada is sparsely populated. Apparently, Obama won more counties that had a disproportionate amount of delegates per residents assigned to them than Clinton. This is not much different the the problem that we have with the electoral college. Less populous status have a disproportionate number of electoral college votes (like Wyoming) than more populous states (like California).
To get the real scoop on who is winning the election I rely on delegate counts provided by MSNBC.com
As of now the delegate count is:
Barack Obama 38
Hillary Clinton 36
John Edwards 18
2 comments:
Aloha! Your blog is very interesting and educational and I'm looking forward to reading more. I recently moved to Honolulu and came across your postings while researching the election process for this state. That said, I was hoping you could demystify a few more things in regular-people lingo for me (and whomever else might be reading and wondering)...
Is the general public allowed to vote in the Hawaii primaries on February 19th? I read that is a "caucus" state, but what does that mean for me? Also, are voters who are not registered as Democrats or Republicans (i.e. Green Party) barred from voting in these elections nationwide?
If you get a chance, I'd love your thoughts!
Mahalo!
~C
Aloha Car,
Hawaii is a Caucus state and Party rules require you to be a member of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, although one could join the party at a caucus location the day of the caucus.
See here for caucus locations near you.
To clarify, in states like California you join a party by checking a box on your voter registration form. This is not the case in Hawaii. In other words, one does not "register" to be a Democrat, Republican, Green, etc. One registers as an independent voter, but signs up to join a party INDEPENDENTLY of the voter registration process. So whichever party you choose to align yourself with, you will need to go to sign up with them either on their website or another venue.
A hui hou,
Hawaii Liberal
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