Talk:1860 Democratic National Conventions

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Half-votes

Anyone knows what's that thing with half-votes? I don't understand how the heck did Douglas get 151 ½ votes. Does that mean 151 ½ people voted for him? If so, who was the ½? *confused* --82.179.218.10 (talk) 10:53, 11 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Fractional votes have commonly been used in party conventions over the years. Rules have varied from year to year and from state to state; they have been all over the map. I believe at the time, each state was allocated a number of votes equal to the number of members of Congress they had, but they elected twice as many delegates, with each delegate having one half vote. Obviously, they could have doubled the number of votes, giving each delegate a whole vote, and it would have been equivalent.

Fractional votes have also been used when disputes in some states resulted in multiple competing convention delegations. In some cases, both delegations were seated, with each delegate being allocated a half vote. I believe that at some times, while the number of votes allocated to each state was (obviously) fixed, the states had leeway in deciding the number of delegates. So if a state chose 50% more delegates than the number of votes they had, each delegate was given two-thirds of a vote.

Fractional votes are still used today. While delegates from the states usually get a whole vote each, those from the territories and the "Democrats Abroad" delegates are allocated half votes. In the 2008 convention, Florida and Michigan held their primaries earlier than allowed by party rules and according to the rules, they were not supposed to be seated. The compromise was to give delegates from those states half votes.

-- JPMcGrath (talk) 21:30, 11 May 2010 (UTC)[reply]