Participation in Tennessee's delegate selection process is open to all voters who wish to participate as Democrats. Voters are not required to declare a party preference; however, they must request a Democratic primary ballot to vote in the presidential preference primary.

Tuesday 6 March 2012: 82 of 91 delegates to the Democratic National Convention are pledged to presidential contenders based on the results of the voting in today's Tennessee Presidential Primary. A mandatory 15 percent threshold is required in order for a presidential contender to be allocated National Convention delegates at either the congressional district or statewide level.

• 53 district delegates are to be pledged proportionally to presidential contenders based on the primary results in each of the State's 9 congressional districts.
• CD 1: 5
• CD 2: 6
• CD 3: 5
• CD 4: 5
• CD 5: 7
• CD 6: 6
• CD 7: 6
• CD 8: 6
• CD 9: 7
• In addition, 29 delegates are to be pledged to presidential contenders based on the primary vote statewide.
  • 18 at-large National Convention delegates
  • 11 Pledged PLEOs

Here's how we compute the delegate count:

1. A candidate must receive 15% or more of the total popular vote to qualify for delegates. Discard votes cast for those candidates who do not meet the threshold.
2. Allocate Congressional District delegates from the qualified vote in each district. Allocate Pledged PLEO and At-Large delegates using the state-wide qualified vote.
3. In each jurisdiction (CD and statewide):
1. Total qualified vote = total votes cast for the qualifying candidates in the jurisdiction.
2. Allocation = (delegates for the jurisdiction) × (candidate's popular vote) ÷ (total qualified vote).
3. Assign each candidate the WHOLE NUMBER of delegates.
4. If delegates remain, allocate each of the remaining delegates to those candidates with the LARGEST REMAINDERS.

Saturday 10 March 2012: County Conventions meet to elect delegates to the District Conventions. The number of delegates allotted to each presidential candidate is determined by each candidate's performance in the primary. A total of 2,997 county delegates are elected to the district conventions.

Saturday 24 March 2012: District Conventions meet to elect National Convention district level delegates according to the results of the primary.

Saturday 31 March 2012: State Executive Committee.

National Convention Pledged PLEO and At-Large delegates are elected according to the results of the primary.

The remaining 9 National Convention delegates consist of

• 9 Unpledged PLEO delegates:
• 6 Democratic National Committee members.
• 2 Members of Congress (0 Senators and 2 Representatives).
• 0 Governors.
• 1 Distinguished Party Leader (former Vice President Albert "Al" Gore, Jr.).

These 9 delegates and will go to the Democratic National Convention officially "Unpledged".

Note:

HB 612 (filed by State Representative Gerald McCormick (Republican) on 10 February 2011) and SB 599 (filed by state Senator Mark Norris (Republican) on 10 February 2011) was signed by Governor William "Bill" Haslam on 9 May 2011. The law changes the date of the Presidential primary from the 1st Tuesday in February (7 February 2012) to the first Tuesday in March (6 March 2012). Statue: Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 2-13-205.

14 February 2011: State Representative Gerald McCormick (Republican) introduced HB 793. This bill changes the date of the Presidential Primary from the 1st Tuesday in February (7 February 2012) to the first Tuesday in March (6 March 2012).

16 February 2011: State Senator Mark Norris (Republican) introduced SB 929. This bill changes the date of the Presidential Primary from the 1st Tuesday in February (7 February 2012) to the first Tuesday in March (6 March 2012).

14 February 2011: State Representative Craig Fitzhugh (Democratic) introduced HB 760. This bill moves moves the Presidential Primary from the 1st Tuesday in February to the same day as the county primary, the 1st Tuesday in May.

17 February 2011: State Senator Jim Kyle (Democratic) introduced the companion bill to HB 760, SB 1875.