The Politicker

Dem Popular Vote Tally Excludes Caucuses

by Steve Kornacki  |  February 6, 2008
|  Tags:
Minnesota!
Minnesota!

Hillary's Clinton's microscopic victory in the combined popular vote from last night's primary--7,347,971 to 7,294,85--fails to take into account the caucuses that were held in Colorado, Minnesota, Kansas, Idaho, North Dakota and Alaska. All of those contests were won--overwhelmingly--by Barack Obama.

Under Democratic rules, each vote isn't tallied at caucuses. The caucuses serve only to award delegates to go to a state convention (which then elects the national delegates). The results from caucus states reflect the number of convention delegates to the state convention won by each candidate.

So while Hillary Clinton eked past Obama in the popular vote on Super Tuesday, it can also be said that more people who participated in Super Tuesday 2008 favored Obama than Clinton.

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Anonymous (not verified) says:

This is wrong. The numbers from all of the states except Alaska represent actual votes and were counted in the tally. This should be obvious to you, unless you think its plausible that there will be approximately 200,000 convention delegates at Minnesota's state convention. More people who participated in Super Tuesday favored Clinton. Update time!

February 06, 2008 6:13 PM

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