From Vox: What are “superdelegates,” and what do they mean for the Democratic nomination?

Despite Sander's victory over Clinton in the New Hampshire Primary, concerns have sprung up that Clinton's delegate haul might be larger than deserved based on vote results. This is due to the "superdelegates" mentioned in the previous post. It's a principal ways that the Democratic establishment tries to control the outcome of primaries, and reduce the chaos that often accompanies the Democratic race.

Vox describes it.

- Click here for the article.

As Elaine Kamarck writes in her book Primary Politics, the creation of superdelegates was a reaction to the messy 1980 Democratic convention, in which Ted Kennedy and his supporters challenged sitting President Jimmy Carter. Many Democrats felt that the democratization of the primary process had led to chaos, and resulted in many nominees that ended up losing. Therefore, they wanted to give party elites more of a say.

"We must also give our convention more flexibility to respond to changing circumstances, and, in cases where the voters' mandate is less than clear, to make a reasoned choice," Jim Hunt, who headed the commission that considered reforming the party's rules, said at the time, according to Kamarck's book. "We would then return a measure of decision-making power and discretion to the organized party."

Perhaps, as Hunt's quote suggests, the Democratic officials themselves believed this was a responsible way to ensure that the party nominated the right candidate. But it's much harder to believe that that they didn't foresee the undemocratic implications of bolstering the "decision-making power" of party leaders.

The Democratic nomination will be determined by 4,763 total delegates — 4,051 chosen by the voters and 712 who fit the "super" category.

The 712 superdelegates are made up of two major groups. One is prominent elected Democrats, including all of the party's governors, the president and vice president, and all of its members in Congress.

The second group consists of all members of the Democratic National Committee. That includes elected representatives, like mayors and county executives, as well as presidents of various Democratic organizations like the National Federation of Democratic Women and the College Democrats of America, according to the DNC's bylaws.

For more on the subject:

- Wikipedia: Superdelegate.
- Wikipedia: List of Democratic Party superdelegates, 2016.|
- The Green Papers: Democratic Detailed Delegate Allocation - 2016.
- Delegate Selection Materials for the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
- The Green Papers: Republican Detailed Delegate Allocation - 2016.