another civics lesson

How I love the election cycle.
To put it to Christmas music I'm singing "It's the most wonderful time of the year"
hmmm that gives me an idea, I may write new lyrics for that one, anyhow . . .
our California primary is just over a week away. It actually means something this time which is super exciting but once you emotionally commit to a candidate, it's a nervous roller coaster as all the primaries (and caucuses) go on across the US.

And, though it feels like it should be just a numbers game, voting really isn't.

Some Republican primaries are "winner takes all" which means that the winner of the state primary gets to claim all the delegates from that state for the convention. The democrats like to keep it a bit more confusing and A Democratic candidate needs 2,025 delegates to secure his or her party's nomination. For the Democrats, none of the states are winner-take-all; instead candidates normally win delegates by how well they perform by congressional district in each state's primary or caucus, but again, this varies by state. This helps explain how Clinton won the Nevada caucuses, yet won fewer delegates than Obama.

Also add into the mix the concept of "Super Delegates" Immediately I imagine a super hero type person in spandex underpants. Former President Bill Clinton may play a bigger role in the nomination of the Democratic candidate for president than many people realize. The former president is a "super delegate" to the nominating convention in Denver in August. There are more than 4,000 delegates in the Democratic National Convention. Some are "pledged" delegates based on voter support in state elections. Nearly 40 percent of them are super delegates whose support is not pledged to a particular candidate.

This concept sort of bugs me, makes me feel like my vote isn't as important (which it isn't) and evidently the whole concept was put into place after George McGovern won the popular votes in the primary but went on to be handily spanked by Richard Nixon- the DNC just wants to make sure the party could avoid a mistake by voters in nominating a candidate.

okay, I probably managed to bore you, but this sort of stuff fascinates me, especially when I realize that my guy took more delegates from Nevada than did Hillary (who won the popular vote). Winning a prize, without winning the popular vote seems fair when your guy wins, and stinks when your guy doesn't ( Just ask Mr. Gore about the general election of 2000) . . .
get ready to vote!