With 2016 being such an important election year, there has been a lot of buzz lately on one particular aspect of the overall election process. Regardless of your party identification, if you've been paying attention to the presidential politics you have most likely heard the term "superdelegates" being used on numerous occasions. This term, which although is not officially used by either major party, is a huge part of nominating the official Democratic candidate for President of the United States. With there being so many people discussing the role of "superdelegates," many against them and some in defense, it is very crucial to have an in-depth understanding of what these delegates' exact purpose is, why they exist and how much power they actually have. The goal of this article is to provide you with a reliable, brief and holistic background of "superdelegates" that will help you understand how and why the eventual Democratic nominee is picked at the national convention come this July.

The term superdelegate is not officially used by either the Democratic National Committee (DNC) or the Republican National Committee (RNC) but is widely regarded as the unofficial name of the roughly 700 unpledged delegates that, along with the pledged delegates (that make up of around 80% of the total delegate count), nominate the Democratic nominee at the convention. By now you are probably wondering exactly who are these superdelegates and what makes them so "super." Well, superdelegates consist of party leaders and elected officials (PLEO) which currently include:

- Distinguished party leaders, such as all current and former Democratic U.S Presidents, Vice Presidents, congressional leaders (i.e. Senate Majority/Minority Leaders, Speakers Of The House of Representatives, etc.) and DNC Chairs (20 people)

- All Democratic Governors (including those of U.S territories and the Mayor of D.C) (21 people)

- All Democratic Senators and Representatives (239 people)

-All elected members of the Democratic National Committee, such as the National Chair, Vice Chair and those of each state, among others (435 people)

The exact number varies by year depending on how many Democrats are holding office, but roughly it should be around 1/5th of the overall number of delegates. These unpledged delegates are different from pledged delegates (which are directly voted for by their district) in two major ways. Firstly, unpledged delegates are technically free to vote for whomever they want to despite what the people of their state want. Secondly, these superdelegates can wait as long as they want to commit to a candidate and can switch candidates whenever they want up until the National Convention. Although there is a debate that based on the rules of certain states there exists pledged delegates that are able to switch candidates, this has mostly been frowned upon by the majority of the party.

Although these superdelegates are not anything new, they have not always existed and have a very complicated and messy history. Throughout the history of the Democratic Party, there have been several systems for nominating the candidate that have been used and replaced. For the majority of the 19th and 20th centuries, the party went through the "Brokered Convention Era" (1832-1968); this was an extremely rigged system that revolved around the party leaders manipulating and dictating the results of the convention. All of this ended after the infamous convention of 1968 which consisted of violent outbreaks and overall political unrest after party elites essentially made sure that Vice President Hubert Humphrey become the nominee even though this did not reflect the will of the people.

It might be hard to believe this now, but superdelegates were meant to be the solution to this problem. The party decided that by creating a separate pool of delegates, grassroots activists would have a much greater chance of becoming pledged delegates since they would not have to compete with career politicians who had better name recognition. The party also felt that it was still very important to let its establishment members have a voice in order to help nominate someone they felt would be a strong and suitable candidate in the general election. What the party was not able to easily agree on was the exact proportion of superdelegates. Below is a brief timeline of how superdelegates got to where they are now:

-1972:Under the leadership of Senator George McGovern, the party rules were rewritten to shift the balance of power to activists and to lessen the establishment's influence.

-1982: In a commission that was led by Senator James B. Hunt Jr., the superdelagtes were officially born when a new rule created uncommitted delegates consisting of congressmen, governors and other party leaders. (This was a response to Jimmy Carter's defeat to Ronald Reagan)

-1984:Due to huge backlash towards the original plan for superdelgtes to consist of 30% of the overall number of delegates, the Hunt Commission compromised and it was established that they would only be around 15% (however since then it has increased to roughly 20%).

Common Misconceptions and Things To Remember:

-Many people claim that the Republican Party also has superdelegates, but this is not actually true. While the term is not officially used by either party, many claim that the fact that the RNC allows for each state three official party members that are automatically made delegates is the same thing. However, these three members (which are the state's chairman, national committeewoman and national committeeman) are not free to vote for whomever they want and are legally obligated to vote in a way that reflects what their constituents want.

- While according to official DNC rules, superdelegates are allowed to vote for the candidate they prefer. It is important to note that a huge proportion of these superdelegates are only given this duty due to the fact that they are currently elected officials. Since their job as a superdelegate is an extension of a job that was given to them by the people, it is still very appropriate for constituents to lobby their senator, congressman and governor to use their vote in a way that reflects the majority of the people.

-Remember superdelegates can change who they are endorsing at any point, even at the convention itself, and they most likely will. Just because a candidate appears to have the vast majority of superdelegates on their side right now, that does not mean they will come this July.

- Oh, and just incase you have not figured it out by now, whenever anyone refers to unpledged delegates they mean the same thing as superdelagates.(Superdelegates = Unpledged Delegates)

I hope that this article was able to answer any questions you have in regards to what exactly superdelegates do and why they exist. There is a lot of valid criticism and defense toward their role in nominating the official party candidate and my intention was to give you an unbiased analysis of their job that you can use as a basis to make your own opinions. I want to end this article with saying that you should not be completely dissatisfied with the power that the people have. The last thing that the DNC wants is a repeat of the 1968 convention, so whichever of the two major candidates receives the majority of the popular vote and pledged delegates, they will most likely receive the majority of superdelegates. Even though so many superdelegates appear to be committed to one candidate now, if this candidate does not win the popular vote and the vote of the pledged delegates, the superdelegates will have no choice but to switch sides or risk having a major backlash as they did before.

Sources:

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"Delegate Selection Rules." Ed. Howard Dean. Democratic National Convention; For The 2008 Democratic Convention, 19 Aug. 2006. Web. 2 Apr. 2016. .

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Kamarck, Elaine. ""A History of 'Super-Delegates' in the Democratic Party"" A History of 'Super-Delegates' in the Democratic Party. Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, 14 Feb. 2008. Web. 03 Apr. 2016. .

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Borchers, Callum, and Robert Samuels. "We Need More Questions like This One from Jake Tapper to Debbie Wasserman Schultz [video]." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 12 Feb. 2016. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.