'Odd' quirk raises delegate stakes in Tuesday's elections

[TexasTowelie]

WASHINGTON (AP) — A quirk in how delegates are won under Democratic Party rules is raising the stakes for Tuesday's elections, allowing a candidate to make up ground in the race quickly — or fall further behind.

Five states — Michigan, Washington, Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho — hold Democratic primaries on Tuesday, while North Dakota has a caucus. All told, there are 352 delegates up for grabs. A candidate needs 1,991 delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination.

That makes for only the fourth-largest delegate night on the primary calendar. But the intricate arithmetic of how delegates are won under Democrats' rules makes it possible for a candidate to reap a bigger haul of delegates with a smaller margin of victory on this Tuesday than on any other night.

For Bernie Sanders, it's an opportunity to catch up to Joe Biden, who enters the day ahead by 96 delegates. For Biden, it's a chance to open up what could become an insurmountable lead.

Read more: https://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Odd-quirk-raises-delegate-stakes-in-Tuesday-s-15118823.php

[Cha]

1. Best of Luck tomorrow!

[honest.abe]

2. In a blowout the 'quirk' won't matter.

Which is what is going to happen in most states tonight.

[thesquanderer]

3. The 4 paragraphs you picked don't actually describe the interesting quirk...

...which is basically that today is loaded with districts that have odd numbers of delegates (and an odd number precludes a tie). So for example, two candidates could split the vote with a barely winning 51%-49% within a given congressional district, and the winner will get one more delegate than the loser.

OTOH, most future contests are in states with even numbers of delegates (which permits a delegate tie), requiring a bigger margin of victory in order for someone to get more delegates than their opponent.

So small wins today can give someone a bigger delegate lead than larger wins will in the future!

[TexasTowelie]

4. I selected the first four paragraphs of the article.

I usually do that on most articles unless those paragraphs are anecdotal introductions or are not germane to the topic being discussed. For this particular article, the initial paragraphs are as pertinent as the latter paragraphs.