Democratic Nomination for President

Given the amount of attention being paid to the possibility of a brokered Democratic Convention, I thought it would be a good idea to review the delegate rules for the convention. So here goes.

Monday 25 August - Thursday 28 August 2008: 45th Democratic National Convention, Denver, Colorado

The 45th DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION will have a total of 4,049 delegate votes, with 2,025 (a majority) necessary in order for a Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidate to be nominated. The rules for the 2008 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:

1. Each state plus the District of Columbia is to be assigned a number of Base delegate votes based on 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: 1996, 2000 and 2004), and the state's number of electoral votes.
2. Of these Base delegate votes, 75% are assigned to be district delegate votes and the remaining 25% are to be at-large delegate votes.
3. In addition to these Base delegate votes, the state (and D.C.) are awarded a number of Pledged "Party Leaders and Elected Officials" [PLEOs], equal to 15% of the number of Base delegate votes. There are also delegate votes from U.S. dependencies which do not cast Electoral Votes for President in a General Election.

These delegate votes described so far (making up a number equal to 115% of the total Base delegate votes 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:

1. Democratic National Committee members.
2. Democratic Members of Congress (U.S. Senators and Representatives, except those who are to be Pledged PLEOs).
3. Democratic Governors, except those who are already members of the Democratic National Committee and, therefore, are delegates re: a.) above.
4. 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.

The breakdown of the delegate votes is 2,838 Base delegate votes (2,111 district delegate votes and 727 at-large delegate votes) 415 Pledged PLEOs (meaning a total of 3,253 delegate votes to be determined by either a primary or a caucus/convention system in each state or other jurisdiction) 796 Unpledged delegate votes (720 Unpledged PLEOs and 76 Unpledged "add-on"s) for a total of 4,049 delegate votes.

Source: www.TheGreenPapers.com