Stop Worrying About Superdelegates Because They’ve Never Determined a Nomination Before

On the left side of the political aisle, everyone is talking about superdelegates. Bernie Sanders wants them. Hillary Clinton has them. DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Shultz  has been having to defend their use all over the place because Democratic voters have been expressing their concern that their votes won’t count if superdelegates are just going to decide who gets the party’s nomination anyway. Clinton currently has 502 superdelegates. Sanders has 38.

Here is a reminder that superdelegates have never determined the outcome of a nomination. The only year that there was even a suspicion that they might have was 1984, the first year the DNC used them. That year, Walter Mondale won the first round of voting and got the nomination, though a few people were worried he did so by utilizing the superdelegates. The amount of people who believed that were noticeably fewer than those who thought he won fairly.

Consider this from PolitiFact:

Elaine C. Kamarck, who was in charge of counting delegates for Mondale, told PolitiFact Florida that Mondale could have won on pledged delegates alone.

Yes, Mondale had superdelegates, but he would have won without them regardless. Since 1984, there have been no other contentious nominations and no accusations of cheating by using the 700 or so high-profile delegates chosen to be “super.”

There are a lot of things to get worked up over during elections, but this is not one of them.

[image via screengrab]

For more form Lindsey, follow her on Twitter.

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