I'm only 19 years old. I have a high school education and I'm working on a college education. So, for obvious reasons I don't know how all of America's Political system works
This election is teaching me more about the bull shit that is American Government. Because the race for the democratic primary is so close new reporters have been talking about delegates. Before this race I had no idea what a delegate was, or that they existed.
So what is a delegate and why should we give a fuck? Basically, which ever candidate gets the most delegates, gets the nomination.
Clinton has 872 delegates and Obama has 793. The delegates are obviously loosely based on how many votes that candidate receives but like the electoral college there is a gap between the citizens and the powerful system.
So if the people don't determine that amount of delegates a candidate gets... what does.
As a
MSNBC article mentions counts delegates "is both an art and a science, and the task can be can annoyingly open to interpretation." A.K.A.: bullshit.
The system involves counting votes and weighing county lines and making educated guess about district lines. In the end it's a mess.
Let's look at California. California has 370 delegates. 129 of those votes are based who wins the whole state
For instance if a candidate A got 54% of California's vote they'd get 129 * .54 delegates or 70 delegates.
But what about the other 241 delegates. It's not so simple. These delegates are divided based upon county and congressional district lines. You see votes are counted in country but divided by districts. In most case a country hold one congressional district, but this is not always the case.
Some counties could hold multiple districts. So it's possible that candidate A won the majority of votes, but that candidate B won the most districts. Finding out what's what is difficult.
Worst yet some district are in two counties this is rare, but still, who's ingenious idea was that?
What does all this mess mean? It means that the numbers can vary and sometimes (like Obama, Clinton and Utah), a candidate might win a state but get less delegates than their opponent. Weird.
But wait, there's still more bullshit: super bullshit in fact. Not only do candidates have to fight for delegates, they have to fight for Super delegates. Thought picking delegate was difficult? Wait until you learn the cryptic methods used to allot super delegates.
Super Delegates are actually people and they can change their mind. It's get really confusing, because people are confusing.
And as if that wasn't enough, candidates drop out of the race. These means some delegates are up in the air after their supported candidate leaves. What do we do with these orphan delegates? The answer is not very clear.
And let's not begin to talk about caucuses. They are just as confusing as the delegate system.
So, at the end of the day, should we just stop voting? the answer is No. You vote might not count for much, but knowing that you voting is a good feeling. And let's face it those "I voted" Sticker are neat!