Superdelegates are they Needed Essay

Superdelegates, are they needed?

Superdelegates are a clearly undemocratic method that the Democratic Party uses for nominating their presidential candidate.   They have too much influence in a tight election and their power should be reduced to allow the voice of the voter to be heard and take affect.
Before this election hardly anybody knew about Superdelegates, why they mattered or that were not required to vote for the same candidate that the majority of their state did and by doing so cancel out the state’s voters’ choice.   Superdelegates are previously elected Democrats such as all former presidents and vice presidents, all Democratic members of Congress, Democratic governors, members of the Democratic National Committee, all former Democratic Leaders of the U.S. Senate, all former Democratic Speakers of the House of Representatives and Democratic Minority Leaders, and all former Chairs of the Democratic National Committee
Superdelegates were created after a bitter fight between Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy for the nomination at the 1980 convention where party leaders felt very underrepresented causing a divide in the party resulting in the Democrats losing the election that year. (Devine, A10) As a result the Hunt Commission was formed in 1982 to fix the problems that were caused by the McGovern –Fraser Commission.   The purpose of this was to “restore the balance to the nominating process that would allow for a convention more representative of the party’s rank and file” (Herrera, 79)
Superdelegates are undemocratic because they go back to when the nominee was chosen by party bosses in smoke filled back rooms.   They wield too much power considering that the superdelegates’ votes “have more than twice the votes of the richest state prize, California” (Yoo, A15). Out of the 2025 delegate needed to secure the nomination 796 of those are superdelegates, that is nearly 40% of total the delegates. According to the Wall Street Journal “the Obama and Clinton...