Thursday, February 7, 2008
How delegates are counted
I have an excel spreadsheet with all the votes and all the delegate counts if percentages of votes were used as the basis for delegates. It includes lines for CNN's and AP's and the NYTimes' delegate counts and it turns out that the actual delegate count has little logic at all. My favorite Dem example is New Hampshire where Edwards came in 2nd but received one more delegate than Clinton. My favorite GOP example is California where McCain's percentage should earn him 71 delegates to Romney's 58, Huckabee's 20 and Others' 20, but where the assignment is McCain 149, Romney 3 and everyone else zero. Fifty percent of the states do not assign delegates simply based on percentage of votes. Weird, scary if we're really a democractic society, but true.
At least the electoral college is based on actual votes, however, so if the majority of Kansans voted for Billy Bob Thornton then Kansas's electoral college delegates would have to vote for BBT on the first ballot. But not primaries. Not in the GOP.
At least the electoral college is based on actual votes, however, so if the majority of Kansans voted for Billy Bob Thornton then Kansas's electoral college delegates would have to vote for BBT on the first ballot. But not primaries. Not in the GOP.
Labels: 2008 election, politics, ridiculousness
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