CCLP has launched Project on Presidential Primaries: Roadmap to Nomination 2016, a crowd-sourced Google Doc detailing the delegate selection rules for the 2016 primaries and caucuses by state, party, type, voter participation, election dates, and more.
Most Americans — even candidates and party insiders — have little knowledge about how delegates are chosen in presidential caucuses and primaries. The rules vary dramatically by state and party and change from election to election.
The Project on Presidential Primaries is a crowd-sourced resource to help illuminate the system of presidential primaries in the United States. It is an initiative of the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy, which is directed by Geoffrey Cowan.
CCLP senior fellow Nicco Mele announced the launch of this project in his article on Medium.com about the likelihood of Donald Trump winning in New Hampshire and Iowa. Mele writes, “There are some interesting questions about the way that the primary/caucus calendar — originally engineered to offer an establishment candidate like Jeb Bush a clear path to victory in a crowded field — might benefit Trump. My colleagues at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy have painstakingly mapped the primary/caucus landscape in this Google Doc. There are still some unanswered questions and quite a few wrinkles to be ironed out, but it’s up-to-date and completed to the best of our knowledge and ability at this point. Crowd-sourcing it is probably the best way to fill in the gaps and get our questions answered — tweet suggestions to me or Ev Boyle.”
This project is inspired by Cowan who, as a young Yale Law student in 1968, asked what ABC news anchor Howard K. Smith called a “novel question”: “How are the delegates for the Democratic National Convention chosen?” Watch the video here.
Contact commlead@usc.edu with questions.
Adviser:
Nicco Mele (Senior Fellow, USC Annenberg CCLP)
Research Team:
Ev Boyle (Director of Special Projects, USC Annenberg CCLP)
Soledad Altrudi (Graduate Research Fellow, USC Annenberg CCLP)
Disclaimer:
This is a crowd-sourced resource. While CCLP will do its best to monitor and maintain the spreadsheet, we do not guarantee it is accurate or up-to-date. For regularly updated and vetted delegate information, visit The Green Papers, which is maintained by Richard E. Berg-Andersson, and Frontloading HQ, which is maintained by Josh Putnam.