I don't get the Texas results, and, perhaps, if other states follow

[question everything]

Hillary got 1,459,814 in the primaries, and 18,620 in the caucuses that very same day, for a total of 1,478,434 votes.

Obama got 1,358,785 in the primaries and 23,918 in the caucuses for a total of 1,382,703.

How can, then, Obama "win" Texas yesterday?

I really think that the Clinton campaign need to sue, not that they will have any chance of winning.

Why is it that we lamented, in 2000, electoral college trumping popular vote when Gore lost, but we - at least the Obamanites and the Texans - are happy with such a system?

[Sadie5]

1. Don't quite understand it myself

But another thread has them screaming bloody murder because the county which Laredo is in gave Hillary all of their 51 delegates. I think I read it right. They are saying this is unfair to O, but since when has the O crowd been fair to Hillary.

[Qanisqineq]

2. Nothing personal against TX

but that state has the absolutely screwiest (a word?) primary system ever created. What were they thinking?

[NoPasaran]

3. Let me try to explain

First, don't try adding the votes from the primary to the numbers in the precinct caucuses because you're counting the caucus-goers twice.

There is no question that Clinton won the March 4 primary, which allocated two-thirds of Texas's pledged delegates. The remaining third are allocated by the caucus/convention system which began on the evening on March 4. Each precinct holds a convention which anyone who voted in the Democratic Primary can attend. Each precinct is allocated a number of delegates to elect to the county convention: one delegate for every fifteen votes in that precinct for the Democratic candidate for governor in 2006. When voters sign in, they indicate their presidential preference. When all have signed in, the proportions of support for each candidate are determined and the total number of delegates is divided accordingly. Then each candidate's supporters caucus separately to elect their share of delegates plus an equal number of alternates.

The next hurdle comes a few weeks later at the county convention. Now the delegates previously elected need to show up again to elect delegates to the state convention. Each precinct's delegation holds another caucus. This time, the precinct gets 1 delegate and 1 alternate for every 180 votes for the 2006 gubernatorial candidate. The entire delegation votes, each delegate having one vote. The person with the most most votes becomes the first delegate; the second-highest, the second delegate, and so on until all the delegates and alternates are chosen. This is what happened on March 29.

The final step comes at the state convention in June. On June 6, the delegates that were elected on Saturday will sign in and indicate their presidential preference one final time. That ratio will finally decide how the remaining one-third of our delegates are divided between Clinton and Obama.

The simple fact is that the Obama campaign spent the last year building up a grassroots organization that identified their supporters that turned them out for the precinct conventions and then got them to come back out for the county conventions. The Clinton campaign tried to conjure something up in the space of a few weeks and not too surprisingly fell short. It didn't help that the out-of-state Clinton staffers (at least those I came into contact with) did not seem to have a very good understanding of how our system worked. And the facts that overall the Obama supporters seem younger and many seem to be part of a messianic movement also did not help us.

[housewolf]

4. Because primaries are about delegate counts, not the popular vote count

and the way the delegates are allocated is a very arcane process, it's not just a flat percentage basis. Because of DNC rules, some precints "weigh" heavier than others due to a variety of factors.

Elections are simple when it's "winner-take-all" like the GE and the Repub primaries. Proportional representation the way the Dems have structured it is a lot more complex.

But the bottom line is, Dem primary races are primarily about winning delegates. The popular vote's role is to assist in the allocation of delegates.

[MonkeyFunk]

6. Are they DNC rules or state party rules?

[housewolf]

7. DNC

And RNC, too. It's similiar to the President being elected by te Electoral College, not the popular vote.

It's our "represenational republic" system at work. Our country is not a true democracy; it's a representation republic. We elect individuals to represent us at all sorts of levels of governemnt.

During the primary season, each candidate wins a certain number of delegates based on the popular vote and (in Dem primaries) that number is weighted in some arcane way based on previous voting patterns. In caucuses, for each delegate-count won, an individual is selected to attend a district or county convention. Delegates are chosen at that level to attend the next leven - county or state conventions. When they finally get to the state conventions, the actual delegates who will attend the national convention are selected. At each level, delegates are chosen by a vote. Someone selected as a delegate at the caucus level may or may not end up actually being a delegate to the national convention.

Primaries operate under a similiar system, but there is no allocation of delegates the night of the election as there is under a caucus system. They have other processes to select delegates to the county conventions, from there on "up" it's about the same.

At the GE level, the "Electoral College" are actually individuals who are selected by each state to attend a meeting where they actually vote and the president is actually elected - this happens sometime in December after the November election. I'm not sure how each state goes about selecting its electors.

[BrightKnight]

5. Like a well greased vote stealing steamroller machine

The Obama Campaign ran my caucus and delegate convention like a well greased vote stealing steamroller machine. By the end of the Senate District Delegate convention Obama had been allocated 49 delegates and Hillary received 19. If the popular vote count can be believed the breakdown was 59% to 41%.

I saw more wrong things than I could begin to describe here.

The only thing represented by the “caucus” and the delegate convention was the will of the Obama campaign. There was nothing “Democratic” about it.