Warren supporters need to know that their vote for Warren could wind up being a vote for Bernie.

[Gothmog]

118. I know how the process works in Texas and I have read up on other states

In Texas, approximately 50% of the delegates are allocated based on the results of the vote in the 31 state senate districts. The Texas Democratic Party is in effect governed by officials (one male and one female) elected from each of the 31 state senate districts. In my district, we had 4 delegates allocated and Hillary got 76% of the vote in my state senate district and so she got 3 of the four available delegates. The other 50% of the delegates are selected statewide by the nominations committee based on the state wide vote. Clinton got 65% of the vote statewide and sanders got 35% of the vote and so Clinton got 65% of the statewide allocation.

I ran as a delegate for my senate district and I was also eligible to be a statewide delegate if I was not elected in my senate district.. In March following the primary and county convention, you could apply to be a delegate by filing an application where you swear under penalty of perjury to support the nominee of the party. In this application, you state which candidate you voted for in the primary and that is the candidate who you agree to support at the national convention. This application has to be notarized and is given to the applicable campaign.

All delegates including pledged delegates are free to change their vote and vote for someone other than their pledged candidate. This is why all campaigns carefully vet their pledged delegates. Each campaigns has absolute approval right over their pledged delegates. The Clinton campaign vetted all of her delegates. I helped vet delegates and I know who vetted me. After this step, the campaigning begins. I sent letters to every delegate scheduled to come to the state convention in my Senate District. I think that I sent out 190 letters. Luckily, I was a maxed out donor for Clinton had I had a great picture of me taken with Clinton that I used in my materials. I also had a resume attached describing what I have done for the party including my efforts on voter protection. I was told by a former national delegate to cut my resume down to two pages which advise I followed. We also sent e-mails out to all of the delegates. Some candidates sent out short e-mails. A couple had cute pictures.

At the convention, all of the delegates in each senate district meet as a caucus. We voted for delegates by secret ballot. The caucus also elected people to serve on the nominations and other committees (I have been on the rules committee a couple of times) and we voted on the person who would be our elector in the Electoral College. The party vets people who are selected as electors. One sanders supporter asked to be elected as a lark and he got voted down in favor of a long time county party chair who everyone trusted.

The delegates selected at the senate district caucuses were announced that night and the statewide delegates were selected by the nominations committee and approved by the entire caucus on Saturday. There was one sanders delegate who was elected in his senate district caucus but was rejected by the sanders campaign due to the fact that this delegate refussed to state that he hated Clinton. The state party invited that young man to be a guest at the National Convention and I met him while he worked at the convention.

The process is somewhat similar in other states with primaries. Most other states allocate their delegates among congressional districts. Yes, I know that Texas is different. At the National Convention, the Clinton delegates were ordered to ignore the bad behavior of the sanders delegates.

I hope that this explanation of the process helps. The approval rights of delegates by campaigns is a critical part of the process.