Re: delegates, 'super delegates' and the Democratic Party national convention process:

Some highlights of recent Democratic convention rules disputes

Although it did not have a formal set of rules before 1972, the Democratic Party operated with two controversial rules from its earliest conventions.

The UNIT RULE enabled the majority of a delegation to cast the entire vote of the delegation for one candidate or position. The unit rule was abolished by the 1968 convention.

The TWO-THIRDS NOMINATING RULE mandated candidates for president and vice president were required to win a
two-thirds majority vote (as opposed to a simple majority). The two-thirds nominating rule was abolished in 1936
because the rule produced seven multi-ballot conventions between the years of 1832 and 1932.

Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota was an unmitigated disaster as the Democratic presidential nominee in 1972.
But he had a lasting impact on the party through his work as first chairman of the Commission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection. Because of the McGovern committee's work, it is no longer possible for small groups of state party officials to handpick convention delegates, tell them whom to vote for and, in effect, choose the party nominee without consulting the voters. (Hubert Humphrey was the last such candidate -- he received the 1968 nomination despite having won NO primaries or caucuses.)

Beginning with reforms proposed by the McGovern panel, the Democratic party "democratized" the presidential selection process through a succession of commissions between 1968 and 1992. This series of changes succeeded in

1) crafting rules to guarantee better representation for women, young people and minorities;

2) secured PROPORTIONAL ALLOCATION of delegates, based on state primary or caucus results (eliminating winner-take-all allocation of delegates); and

3) gave convention votes to party leaders and elected officials (they are nicknamed SUPERDELEGATES and are allowed to remain uncommitted until the convention).

http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1996/conventions/chicago/facts/rules/index.shtml

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Rules

On February 2, 2007, the Democratic Party published its Call for the Convention, which are the rules governing the convention. There will be 3,515 pledged delegates which will be selected by primary voters and caucus participants, and 852 unpledged delegates, colloquially known as superdelegates, which are DNC members, Democratic members of Congress and Governors, and other important figures in the party.

The pledged delegates are allocated among the states in rough proportion to the proportion of votes each state gave the Democratic candidate in the last three Presidential elections and the percentage of votes each state has in the Electoral College.

In addition, fixed numbers of delegates are allocated for Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Democrats Abroad.

Under the party's Delegate Selection Rules, delegates are awarded via proportional representation with a minimum threshold of 15% of votes in a state in order to receive delegates. In addition, the delegate population must reflect the state's ethnic distribution, and at least 50% of the delegates must be women.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Democratic_National_Convention