Project Update - 6/30

So as I had explained before, my research for the purposes of the DNC and this fellowship have changed slightly. There are essentially three phases for the research project, which will hopefully be finished by the first week of September, if not by the convention itself.

First, I have compiled a list of all superdelegates excluding Florida and Michigan (new lists are not yet available) including their state and position if applicable. I have denoted in the database which candidate the superdelegate has supported. I will then go through and determine whether the superdelegate has pledged support in a way that contradicts their constituency. For example, if a superdelegate has pledged support to Barack Obama, but their specific constituency voted in majority for Hillary Clinton, there is a contradiction. I will also consider an superdelegate who has not pledged support to either candidate to automatically be against their constituency. After all of these numbers are evaluated, a simple percentage number will be calculate to determine what portion of the superdelegates voted against their constituents.

The next part of the project will involve re-creating the entire democratic primary season after removing superdelegates. There will be no superdelegates in any state totals, and the national threshold to nominate will be recalculated to reflect the absence of the superdelegates. This data will then be analyzed to see if the elections could have ended soon, and to see who would win the election given the new circumstances.

Finally, all of this information will be broken down into written form, and compiled as a paper evaluating the entire democratic superdelegate system.