I want to start by saying we should not have Superdelegates. Their ability to overturn the will of the voters is undemocratic. The winner should be chosen based on pledged delegates netted. There are approximately 717 Superdelegates, according to Wikipedia, of which 467 have committed to Clinton versus 26 to Sanders:
- 20 distinguished party leaders (DPL), consisting of current and former presidents, vice-presidents, congressional leaders, and DNC chairs
- 21 Democratic governors (including territorial governors and the Mayor of the District of Columbia)
- 46 Democratic members of the United States Senate (including Washington DC shadow senators)
- 193 Democratic members of the United States House of Representatives (including nonvoting delegates)
- 435 elected members of the DNC (including the chairs and vice-chairs of each state's Democratic Party)
Now that Clinton has an almost insurmountable lead in pledged delegates, Sanders and his strategists are hoping to persaude her Superdelegates to rescue him. One argument they have made is that Superdelegates should be encouraged to vote for whichever candidate won the primary/caucus in the state that the Superdelegate hails from.
That almost sounds fair and reasonable, except that when Superdelegates are chosen, no effort is made to distribute them equitably among the share of democratic voters they represent. Hillary has won more red states and swing states, whereas Sanders has won more blue states. This would put her at a disadvantage when it comes to Superdelegates.
Here is an example of how the Superdelegate count would go for a red state Hillary won by a large margin versus a blue state Sanders won by a large margin:
South Carolina (Hillary win):
6 Superdelegates
Democratic primary votes cast: 370,904
Votes for Hillary: 272,379 (per SC SOS)
Vermont (Sanders win):
10 Superdelegates
Democratic primary votes cast: 135,526
Votes cast for Sanders: 115,863 (per AP)
If Superdelegates are allocated according to who won the state, Sanders would net 10 for his 115,863 voters, whereas Hillary would net 6 for her 272,379 democratic voters. In other words, Sanders would get more than twice as many Superdelegates for less than half the number of democratic voters.
In states with open primaries, independents and crossover voters sometimes tipped the state to Sanders, even though Hillary received more votes from democratic voters. If Superdelegates from those states were required to vote for Sanders, the state’s independents/crossover republicans would have an even greater influence on the democratic primary outcome than the state’s democratic voters.
Wikipedia has a chart that lists all the Superdelegates, which you can sort by state. Of course Devine and Sanders are pushing this strategy; it juxtaposes with their argument that red state democrats don’t really count. It could also tip the balance toward Sanders since red states are less likely to elect democrats as governors, senators, or representatives—all officials who are drafted as Superdelegates.
The democratic nominee should be the person selected by the majority of democratic pledged delegates in the United States. Superdelegates should not have the opportunity—or the obligation—to tip the balance in favor of the losing candidate.
Friday, Mar 18, 2016 · 5:25:33 PM +00:00 · CatM
From another more detailed diary by ObamOcala on this topic, Sanders said this in an interview with Rachel Maddow yesterday:
MADDOW: I just want to be super clear with you about that just to make sure that I understand. Are you saying that even if you were behind in pledged delegates—I know you think you won’t be—but if you were behind in pledged delegates you would still take that case all the way to the convention and try to convince the supers?
SANDERS: Well we are going to do the best that we can in any and every way to win. But I think when you have states for example say in New Hampshire where we won by 22 points. In other states where we’ve won by 25 or even 30 points. I think it is not unreasonable for the people of those states to say to their super delegates, hey, how about representing the people of our state and the outcome of the caucus or the primary.
It is unreasonable, as my diary explains.
NOTE: Diary has been updated to reflect that SC has 6 superdelegates, not 4.