Ask Phil

Phil McNamara is Director of Party Affairs and Delegate Selection. In other words, he is our go-to guru on all things delegate – pledged and un-pledged. “Ask Phil” is your chance to have your questions answered on the mechanics, rules and processes governing the Convention. We “Ask Phil” questions all the time, now it’s your turn. Phil will pick one of your questions to answer each week. Check back here to see if your inquiry was answered.

To submit your question, send an email to AskPhil@DemConvention.com. Please be sure to include your name and home town.

Question 1

I am a pledged delegate from the State of California and am interested in getting a seat on one of the standing committees -- How does this process work? -Eric, Oak Park Calif.

Answer: First, Congratulations on being elected as a pledged delegate. The enthusiasm and energy of this cycle's nominating process has meant a huge increase in the number of folks participating in the process -- which is great for the Party.

There are three Standing Committees of the Convention -- Credentials, Platform, and Rules. Each committee has a total of 186 members, with 161 of those coming from the states and territories. The remaining 25 committee members were nominated by DNC Chairman Gov. Howard Dean and elected by the DNC Executive Committee in January 2008. For those members from states and territories, Standing Committee members are selected by each state's National Convention delegates after all of the state's delegates have been elected.

State-based Standing Committee members are allocated to presidential candidates proportionally based on the state-wide results of a state's primary or caucus. As a rule and as general practice, standing committee members do not need to be Convention delegates. In most states, Presidential Campaigns provide a recommendation of individuals to serve as Standing Committee members to the National Convention delegates who in turn select those members. So as a pledged delegate, you will have the opportunity to ratify your state's standing committee members.

In order to allow as many people as possible to participate in the Convention, campaigns generally spread their supporters out as delegates, alternates and standing committee members. So it's probably unlikely that pledged delegates will be elected as standing committee members, though not entirely impossible or prohibited under the rules. You should talk with your State Party about the process used in your state or territory.

Question 2

Is a simple majority required during the delegate voting at the Democratic National Convention? If neither candidate receives enough votes in the first round of voting, is it possible for the ballots to go to a second, third and fourth round and so on? If so, is there a point when delegates are free to change their vote for a different candidate? Pauline, Houston TX

Answer: All very good questions. The Convention's Procedural Rules require that the Party's Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates be nominated by a majority vote of the delegates. A majority is more than 50% of the total number of delegate votes that can be cast at the Convention, not merely those present and voting.

Balloting continues until a nominee is selected. A candidate secures the nomination upon receiving a majority vote, no matter which ballot. Pledged delegates are not legally "bound" to vote for the candidate they were elected to represent. They can, and have in the past, cast a vote for another presidential candidate at the Convention.

It is entirely possible for the vote to go to a second or third (or more) ballot and there are many examples of that in past Conventions. However, the last time more than one ballot was needed for the Presidential candidate was at the 1952 Democratic Convention and the last time the Vice Presidential voting went to more than one ballot was at the 1956 Convention. Looking to more than 50 years of history as our guide, it is likely that the Party's nominees will be selected on the first ballot.