Who are New York’s superdelegates?

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — The 2024 election looms large with 2020 still at issue for many, and the electoral process remains mysterious to many New Yorkers. In the representative democracy of the U.S., delegates and electors ultimately control the votes that represent their home states.

With Biden having bowed out of running for a second term, the delegates’ role may prove significant in the 2024 election. Delegates are those sent to a political party’s presidential convention to choose the party nominee.

Every state sends delegates to the National Conventions of the Dems or Republicans to vote. New York, a traditionally blue state, generally votes Democrat in federal elections. This means that New York delegates would work within the Democratic National Committee (DNC) at the convention in Chicago in August.

For New York Democrats, delegate candidates appeared on ballots as part of the April 2 presidential primary. Republicans chose their delegates after April 2, so they did not appear on that ballot, according to a spokesperson from the state’s Board of Elections (BOE).

At primaries and caucuses, states pledge delegates based straightforwardly on the vote. Then, at the Democratic National Convention , delegates cast those lots to decide on the nominee. While about 80% of delegates are pledged throughout primary season, the remaining 20% are unpledged or superdelegates.

Usually seated automatically for the convention, they also do not appear on the presidential primary ballot, per BOE. Sometimes referred to as automatic or at-large delegates, they include DNC members, high-ranking elected officials, or “distinguished party leaders.” In 2020, some of New York’s superdelegates included:

Electors, meanwhile, are chosen by political parties. Nominees can’t be added to the ballot until after the convention, when New York’s Democratic and Republican parties submit Certifications of Nomination for Electors. This year, the General Election ballot must be certified by BOE Commissioners by a statutory September 11 deadline. BOE said that electors officially cast votes in the Electoral College in December.

In 2008 and 2016, superdelegates decided tight races between Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Bernie Sanders. In 2012 and 2020, however, Obama and Joe Biden didn’t have primary competition, so superdelegates didn’t take a prominent role.

After the contentious 2016 slugfest between Clinton and Sanders, backlash from rank-and-file Democratic voters prompted the DNC to update the procedures and powers of superdelegates. Now, theoretically, they could still vote for any candidate, but they can’t vote on the first ballot at a contested convention. So, in the first round of convention voting, a superdelegate can only vote for a candidate who earned more than half of the pledged delegates up for grabs at the state primary or caucus in their state.

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