How Our Nominee is selected nationally?

[usregimechange]

Is it just like the general election? The Dem with the most electorial votes?

[question everything]

1. Pretty much so, except

that different states have different rules. Some - I am not sure which - have a winner takes all, while others divide the delegates proportionally. And then, in Iowa, if a candidate gets less than 15% at each precinct s/he is not viable.

Look at California, for example. It used to have its primaries in June and by then the contest would be over. But many thought that California SHOULD have more to say so it moved its presidential primaries to March.

On the other hand, small states like Iowa and New Hampshire would get lost if they waited their turn.

[SadEagle]

2. Roughly so.

Technically, the nominee is chosen by the vote at the national Democratic convention. The voters there are the delegates, most of whom are elected in the local primaries and caucuses, and are "pledged" to vote for a certain candidate. So typically what happens is that we know who will win the convention vote well in advance after enough primaries have happened for someone to have enough votes to guarantee a win. There are also "super-delegates", who are senior party members (like congressmen, etc.), who can vote however they want to, but traditionally go along w/the majority of the popularly chosen delegates. Now, if there is no winner, the convention will have to go into some negotiations, multiple votes, etc., but that's extremely unlikely to happen.

Another difference from EC is that, at least this year, there is no winner-take-all --- so if one candidate gets 66% of the vote in some state, and the other 33%, the looser will still get roughly a third of delegates for the state. There is also a huge number of delegates involved, many more than in the EC (I think it's around 4000, but I can't think of the exact number). The vote count allocation is also different --- it is not only population based, but also gives extra delegates to states that what Democratic.