Explained: The confusion over Tuesday's delegates

Image lovingly borrowed from AP, via Salon.

Although Rick Santorum won three out of three ballots last night in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, you'll see this morning that the delegate counts remain the same, in spite of Colorado being worth 36 delegates, Minnesota being worth 40 and Missouri offering 52. 

Let's deal with Missouri first. The whole primary on Tuesday evening was unofficial, and means very little other than Santorum can brag that he won it. Missouri's official delegates will be awarded at a caucus beginning on 17 March. It's probably also worth pointing out that Santorum may have benefited from low turnout, as people will reluctantly go out and vote in an election which doesn't have a binding or definitive outcome. We'll actually only know the final delegate count for Missouri on 2 June. 

Colorado's caucus results are also non-binding, but are at least an official count. The actual delegates will be distributed at district conventions beginning from 13 March, and will be confirmed at a state convention on 14 March. 

In Minnesota, much the same applies. Delegates will be decided upon as district conventions and confirmed at a state convention on 5 May. 

So why do states do this? 

Well, if you remember Florida lost half of its delegates to award when it moved its primary forward to 31 January, breaking Republican National Convention rules which barred it from holding a primary before 6 March. It's not the only state to attempt this. What states really crave, however, is attention, and the ability to dictate the electoral race. On Super Tuesday on 6 March, when more than ten states go to pick their preferred Republican presidential candidate, it is unlikely that any singular result will have an impact on the race in the way that Iowa or New Hampshire do right at the beginning of the calendar. 

Because Colorado (which ran on Super Tuesday as recently as 2008) and Minnesota award their delegates at conventions later in the year, they did not face penalties for moving the beginning of their decision-making process to before 6 March. Yet they have managed to thrust Rick Santorum forward, hopefully projecting their state's choice into the national spotlight. Had Super Tuesday resulted in these three wins for Santorum, but eight for Mitt Romney, it would have lessened their impact considerably. 

If last night was anything to go by, these strategies are largely successful. And have thrown a spoke in the wheels of the Romney machine, which they most likely would not have done otherwise. 

So now you know. 

The basics of a US election

The American political system is structured somewhat oddly. As you probably know, it boils down to a vote between two parties – Republicans (Bush, Nixon, Eisenhower) and Democrats (Obama, JFK, Clinton) – and this vote is done per state. Now, each state has its own smaller election, and whoever wins this state gets ALL of the electoral votes belonging to that state. Whomsoever wins the most electoral votes becomes president. Get it?

 (image from http://www.270towin.com)

This means that a few states matter more than others during election time. For example, it is highly unlikely that conservative states such as Texas and Mississippi will vote Democrat in this upcoming election. The converse applies to California and Illinois who are unlikely to vote for a Republican in 2012. The other factor to take into account is the population of the state, which determines how influential the state is in picking the president. For example, in a race to 270 electoral votes, California offers candidates 55 votes, Texas 38, and New York and Florida with 29. States with a smaller population, such as North Dakota have three electoral votes. A win in a state gets the party all of the electoral votes; meaning that even a 51% vote for a Republican in a state gives the Republican ALL of the state's electoral votes. (The exception in this case is Nebraska, which only has five votes, but they are awarded proportionally).  

Now, if we take the 2008 election as an indication of which states might swing and determine the result of the election, it is no surprise that current President Barack Obama has been visiting Nevada, Virginia, North Carolina and Ohio recently. These are states he needs to win in order to maintain the presidency, as they have been known to change their minds – kind of like Mitt Romney. Most of them also have enough gravitas to decide the presidency.

Today Barack Obama is in Pennsylvania to bang on about extending payroll tax cuts to the working classes, and getting the wealthy to pay for them. While mostly working class Pennsylvania has usually swung Democrat, it voted the other way in the 2010 midterms which is one of the reasons the House of Representatives fell under Republican control. In 2012, Pennsylvania will carry 20 electoral votes. In the race to 270, that’s a rather nice chunk. Its neighbour, Ohio, will carry 18, and its neighbour Virginia has 13.

It’s also no surprise that on this trip the president is also visiting Florida, which holds 29 electoral votes. You’ll all remember Florida’s influence that robbed the world of the presidency of Al Gore in 2000 and heaved The Inconvenient Truth down the pipes of our televisions ever since. This is the impact that a swing state has.

So while the candidates for the presidency are appreciative of the support they will get from their bankable states, the real election will be contested in the swing states. Expect to see candidates and media all over Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico, Florida, Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Nevada.