Clinton’s lead is not quite what it seems

By Troy Daugherty

If you have been keeping up with the Democratic Primary, then you have probably noticed that Hillary Clinton has compiled a huge lead.

Or, at least, it looks like a huge lead, looking just at the graphs.

However, a lot of these graphs are misleading because they include super-delegates into the delegate counts for each candidate.

Superdelegates are un-elected delegates from within the Democratic Party who have the ability to vote for whoever they want at the party’s national convention.

It’s these superdelegates that have given Clinton her massive lead in the primary so far. Without them, the delegate count stands at 759 for Clinton and 546 for Sanders.

That’s still a big lead for Clinton, but it actually takes 2,383 for a Democrat to win the nomination, so neither candidate is even halfway there.

However, many of the news stations include superdelegates into their delegate counts. Clinton currently has 461 superdelegates to Sanders 25. That isn’t an accurate representation.

The only reason Clinton has 461 of them is because they have “pledged” to her. Basically, all that means is that when Clinton asked them if they would support her, those people said, “Sure.”

These delegates are not required to honor that pledge. They can change their mind before the party’s national convention.

In all likelihood, though, these people will vote for whomever the people in their districts chose, so they don’t upset their constituents.

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