The Green Papers 2004 Presidential Primaries, Caucuses, and Conventions |
Democratic Convention Presidential Nominating Process Automatic selection of unpledged delegates: Monday 1 March 2004 44th Democratic National Convention: Monday 26 July - Thursday 29 July 2004 |
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4,322 total delegate votes - 2,279 district / 783 at large; 458 Pledged PLEOs; 720 Unpledged PLEOs; 82 Unpledged add-ons |
States Chronologically States Alphabetically Republican Convention |
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44th Quadrennial DEMOCRATIC PARTY NATIONAL CONVENTION Democratic National Convention Preview Commentary: Democratic Presidential Candidate Governor Howard Dean released his delegates today and encouraged them to vote for Senator John Kerry and Senator John Edwards for President and Vice President on the first ballot. Governor Dean has 103.5 delegate votes distributed as follows-- Michigan: 24, Washington: 24, Wisconsin: 14, New Hampshire: 9, Vermont: 9, Maine: 7, New Mexico: 4, Arizona: 3, District of Columbia: 3, Democrats Abroad: 2.5, Iowa: 2, Kansas: 1, and Pennsylvania: 1. Democratic National Convention Day 1 Commentary: Democratic National Convention Day 2 Commentary: Democratic National Convention Day 3 Commentary:
The final adjustments to the Democratic delegate count are based on the numbers announced from the chair during the Presidential roll call vote: Puerto Rico: -1 vote for a total of 57 delegate votes, Virginia: +1 vote for a total of 98 delegate votes. At the conclusion of the roll call there were 4,322 delegate votes with 2,162 (a majority) needed to nominate. Democratic National Convention Day 4 (final day) Commentary: Democratic National Convention Wrap Up Commentary: CNN.com's Unpledged delegate scorecard from a survey conducted through 11 March 2004: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/primaries/pages/scorecard/unpledged.html. Kerry- 381, Dean- 53, Edwards- 23, Sharpton- 5, Kucinich- 2, not reporting- 338. Reference: Democrat Delegate Allocation |
Monday 26 July - Thursday 29 July 2004: 44th Democratic National Convention, Boston Massachusetts The 44th DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION will have a total of 4,322 delegate votes, with 2,162 (a majority) necessary in order for a Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidate to be nominated. "The rules for the 2004 Democratic National Convention call for the following formula to be used in determining the allocation of delegate votes to each state and jurisdiction sending a delegation to the Convention: Each state plus the District of Columbia is to be assigned a number of Base delegate votes based on an "Allocation Factor" multiplied by 3,000 (the optimum minimum size of a Democratic National Convention as determined by the Democratic National Committee): a state's (or D.C.'s) "Allocation Factor" being a decimal fraction arrived at through a calculation involving the following factors-
The formula for determining a given state's (or D.C.'s) "Allocation Factor" [AF] is: The number of Base delegate votes assigned to a state is AF × 3000. Of these Base delegate votes, 75% are assigned to be district delegate votes and the remaining 25% are to be at-large delegate votes. In addition to these Base delegate votes, the state (and D.C.) are awarded a number of Pledged "Party Leaders and Elected Officials" [PLEOs] equal to 15% of the number of Base delegate votes as determined by the "Allocation Factor" × 3000 formula described above. There are also delegate votes from U.S. dependencies which do not cast Electoral Votes for President in a General Election. PUERTO RICO is considered, for purposes of the Convention, to have a Base delegate vote of 44; the special case of the other dependencies sending delegations to the Democratic National Convention will be considered below. These delegate votes described so far (making up a number equal to 115% of the total Base delegate votes as determined by the "Allocation Factor" × 3000) are pledged, prior to the first meeting of the Convention, to the support of a presidential contender who earns the support of such delegate votes by virtue of his performance as measured by the votes cast by Democratic voters in primaries and caucuses and/or by Democratic delegates to state and/or sub-state conventions held in each state prior to the Convention. The states (and D.C.) are also assigned a number of "Unpledged" delegates:
The breakdown of the delegate votes is as follows:
There will actually be more delegates on the floor of the Democratic National Convention than there are delegate votes [which is why I use the term "delegate votes" in the first place]. Some states will have more delegate seats than actual delegate votes at that Convention [as a result of which, some delegates from some states will have to cast fractional votes during roll calls on the Convention floor]. There will be 4322 delegate votes at the 44th Democratic National Convention, but there will be 4353 actual delegates on the floor of the Convention (in other words, 31 more delegates than votes)... here's why:
"In a relative handful of cases, a Member of Congress or a Governor is also a member of the Democratic National Committee (in some of these cases, such as that of the Democrats' Congressional Leaders- House Minority Leader Gephardt and Senate Minority Leader Daschle- Members of Congress are DNC members ex-officio; in other cases, however, they represent various associated committees or organizations affiliated with the DNC: for example, U.S. Senators [other than Daschle] sit on the DNC as representatives of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee- likewise, Congressmen [other than Gephardt] and Governors sit on the DNC as representatives of, respectively, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Governors' Association); the Democratic Party lists these Unpledged PLEOs who are DNC members as well as holders of elective office solely as DNC members (in other words, as far as the Party is concerned, these people are "Party Leaders" more than "Elected Officials"). However, it is the considered opinion of "The Green Papers" that the average user of this web site is going to think of these few Unpledged PLEOs who are in the unique position of being both PLs AND EOs more in terms of their elected office than their DNC membership: as a result, "The Green Papers" has "converted" DNC members who happen also to be Governors, Senators and Representatives to their political office from their DNC membership. Therefore, the breakdown in each state or other jurisdiction of Unpledged PLEOs as posted on "The Green Papers" may differ somewhat from that put out by the Democratic Party itself: where this is the case, it is so indicated on the appropriate DEMOCRAT page for the affected state or other jurisdiction." Replacing Unpledged Delegates Unpledged delegates shall not be entitled to a replacement, nor shall the state be entitled to a replacement, except under the following conditions:
Terminology:
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1 Democratic Party's "First Determining Step" of the delegate selection process. |
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