The Primary Source
NYU Students tackle Super Tuesday
After a dramatic kickoff to the primary season in Iowa and New Hampshire and months of debates, media scrutiny and campaigning across the country, the polls will open on February 5th, for the largest Super Tuesday in election history.
This year, 24 states, including for the first time New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, will participate in the Super Tuesday primary election. With 51 percent of the Democratic delegates and 41percent of the Republican delegates voting, the results of this primary could potentially decide who will win the party’s nomination for president, and who will be out.
Facing off on the Democratic ticket are front-runners Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, who are running a tight race. On the Republican side, John McCain is in the lead, followed by Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul in a distant fourth. Obtaining the majority vote is crucial to each candidate during this round of primaries and all are pushing for as many delegates as possible.
To win their party’s nomination for president, the Democratic candidate needs a simple majority of 2,025 out of 4,049 delegate votes while the Republican candidate needs 1,191 out of 2,380 delegate votes.
At the state level, delegate votes are awarded to candidates based on the outcome of the popular vote in that state. Democrats award delegate votes based on proportional representation – a candidate who receives 50 percent of the popular vote, for example, would then receive 50 percent of the delegates. A minimum of 15 percent of the popular vote is necessary for any candidate to gain delegate votes. Republicans award votes based on a simple winner-takes-all majority. If Ron Paul, for instance, wins the most popular votes, he would win all of the delegates. So, although the number of delegate votes is essential to obtaining the party’s nomination for president, the popular vote, our vote, is still important.
The 2008 election affects multiple and varied communities across the New York metropolitan area and the nation. With Primary Source, Pavement’s collection of election packages, undergraduate and graduate students in New York University’s Department of Journalism will highlight the key issues and passions of this election season.
The Primary Source will cover how race and gender, ethnicity, and religion, all come to bear on the election. On Super Tuesday, The Primary Source coverage will include opinions on and reactions to the primaries and their candidates, from the polls and on the street. Then, at the end of the night, The Primary Source will bring you portraits of those who will be celebrating their big wins, or hanging up their hats after a long and dusty trip on the campaign trail.
Insightful, thought-provoking and at times even light-hearted, The Primary Source will provide another view of what the people are thinking at this crucial stop on a captivating ride toward Election 2008.