Helloooo! There are no winner take-alls in 2004, they were outlawed a whiile back! 30% of the vote will equal about 30% of the delegates and then there are the 796 Super-Delegate politicos!
Media to dumb to have noticed so no one knows there will be no way the nominee is decided on Super Tuesday. It will likely go all the way to the convention--unless Kerry and Gephardt get out early and they won't, so they can try and stop Dean.
WE could be looking at a brokered convention--with 800 politico super-delegates, don't forget--out of 4136, 2159 delegates are needed to nominate. Dean could win most of the primaries and lose to an Anybody But Dean movement in Boston!
So get out there now and work even harder for Dean! THERE CAN BE NO COMPLACENCY! Don't be dumb like the media...
http://www.thegreenpapers.com/P04/D.phtmlThe 44th DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION will have a total of 4316 delegate votes, with 2159 (a majority) necessary in order for a Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidate to be nominated.
"The rules for the 2004 Democratic National Convention call for the following formula to be used in determining the allocation of delegate votes to each state and jurisdiction sending a delegation to the Convention:
Each state plus the District of Columbia is to be assigned a number of Base delegate votes based on an "Allocation Factor" multiplied by 3,000 (the optimum minimum size of a Democratic National Convention as determined by the Democratic National Committee): a state's (or D.C.'s) "Allocation Factor" being a decimal fraction arrived at through a calculation involving the following factors-
the state's (or D.C.'s) popular vote for the Democratic candidate for President in the three Presidential Elections just previous to the Convention (in this case: 1992, 1996 and 2000). This is the "State's Democratic Vote"
.
the total popular vote for the Democratic candidate for President in the three Presidential Elections just previous to the Convention (again, in this case: 1992, 1996 and 2000). This is the "Total Democratic Vote" .
the state's Electoral Vote and
the total Electoral Vote (538)
The formula for determining a given state's (or D.C.'s) "Allocation Factor" is:
AF = ( SDV ÷ TDV ) + ( SEV ÷ TEV )
The number of Base delegate votes assigned to a state is AF × 3000. Of these Base delegate votes, 75% are assigned to be district delegate votes and the remaining 25% are to be at-large delegate votes. In addition to these Base delegate votes, the state (and D.C.) are awarded a number of Pledged "Party Leaders and Elected Officials" equal to 15% of the number of Base delegate votes as determined by the "Allocation Factor" × 3000 formula described above. There are also delegate votes from U.S. dependencies which do not cast Electoral Votes for President in a General Election. PUERTO RICO is considered, for purposes of the Convention, to have a Base delegate vote of 44; the special case of the other dependencies sending delegations to the Democratic National Convention will be considered below. These delegate votes described so far (making up a number equal to 115% of the total Base delegate votes as determined by the "Allocation Factor" × 3000) are pledged, prior to the first meeting of the Convention, to the support of a presidential contender who earns the support of such delegate votes by virtue of his performance as measured by the votes cast by Democratic voters in primaries and caucuses and/or by Democratic delegates to state and/or sub-state conventions held in each state prior to the Convention.
The states (and D.C.) are also assigned a number of "Unpledged" delegates:
"Unpledged PLEOs" consisting of the following:
Democratic National Committee members.
Democratic Members of Congress (U.S. Senators and Representatives, except those who are to be Pledged PLEOs).
Democratic Governors, except those who are already members of the Democratic National Committee and, therefore, are delegates re: a.) above.
Distinguished Party Leaders (current and former U.S. Presidents and Vice-Presidents, former Democratic Leaders of the U.S. Senate and U.S, House- including former Democratic Speakers of the House and former chairmen of the Democratic National Committee. and
Unpledged "add-on"s (chosen based on the vote of the members of the Democratic National Committee).
These "Unpledged" delegates go to the Convention officially "Unpledged" (that is, not committed- ahead of time- to vote for any particular presidential contender), though it is well known that many- if not most- of these may very well be privately supporting a presidential contender. The number of these "Unpledged" delegates to the Democratic National Convention is subject to change up to the first meeting of the Convention due to deaths, resignations from office (for those PLEOs who hold an elective office) or accession- by a Democrat- to an elective office through an intervening election or special election. In addition, any Unpledged PLEO who shall subsequently become a Pledged PLEO may further alter the number of Unpledged National Convention delegates within a given delegation."
The breakdown of the delegate votes is as follows:
3062 Base delegate votes (2279 district delegate votes and 783 at-large delegate votes)
458 Pledged PLEOs (meaning a total of 3520 delegate votes to be determined by either a primary or a caucus/convention system in each state or other jurisdiction)
796 Unpledged delegate votes (714 Unpledged PLEOs and 82 Unpledged "add-on"s)
TOTAL: 4316 delegate votes.