In one state after another, the votes by party elites so-called superdelegates counted more than those of regular members. And arduous voting requirements meant that countless people who would have voted for Sanders were denied that right. If the Democrats want any hope of voting Trump out of the White House, it is urgent they fix this broken system before the next election.
Sanders pledged delegate count which reflected the number of votes he received from rank-and-file Democrats exceeded Clintons by four. But after the superdelegates cast their ballots, the roll call registered Clinton 76, Sanders 67.
This repeated itself in other states. In Indiana, Sanders won the vote 44 to 39, but, after the super delegates had their say, Clinton was granted 46 delegates, versus Sanders 44. In New Hampshire, where Sanders won the vote by a gaping margin (60% to 38%) and set a record for the largest number of votes ever, the screen read 16 Sanders, 16 Clinton.
Sanders lost those states because hundreds of superdelegates had pledged their votes long before the primaries and caucuses began. By including those prearranged votes, running media tallies reinforced the inevitability of a Clinton win and the common perception that the Democratic primary was rigged. In June, the Associated Press went so far as to call the primary in Clintons favor before Californians even had a chance to cast their votes.
During the New York primary, between 3 and 4 million unaffiliated voters were disenfranchised due to a statute that required changing ones party affiliation 25 days prior to the previous general election. In 2016, that deadline was 193 days before election day. Over a third of under-30 voters Sanderss core constituency werent registered to any political party. When those young people tried to vote, they were turned away.