Convention Information :: Download the 2008 Program

What Happens at the District Convention

If you are elected a delegate or alternate at your Precinct Convention, you should attend your County Convention on Saturday, March 29, 2008. In some urban counties, Senatorial District Conventions will be held instead of a County Convention.

The County Convention is called to order by the County Chair, who calls for the report of the Credentials Committee.

The Credentials Committee is a committee of the convention that decides disputes over who has been elected a delegate or alternate. The committee is elected by the County Executive Committee before the convention.

You will first elect a Chair and Secretary to run the convention.

Next, a poll is taken of all the delegates to determine how many delegates of the convention support each candidate.

The Chair will announce the results.

Fourth, delegates in each precinct, or sometimes a group of precincts, gather together to elect delegates and alternates to the State Convention.

Within the group, the delegates and alternates are elected at one time, but you cast only one vote. The highest vote-getters are the delegates and the next highest are the alternates.

For example, suppose your precinct gets to elect one delegate and one alternate to the State Convention. Only one election is held and you get to cast only one vote. Thus if 10 supporters of John Smith are present and all 10 vote for one delegate to the State Convention while 8 supporters of Jane Doe are present and all 8 vote for another delegate, then the John Smith representative will be the delegate and the Jane Doe representative will be the alternate.

The results of all the elections within the precincts are added together and given to the Nominations Committee. This committee then distributes the "at-large" delegates among each of the presidential candidates so that the county's delegation reflects each candidate's fair share of the convention.

For instance, if supporters of Jane Doe made up 50% of your convention, the Nominations Committee would work to see that 50% of the delegates to the State Convention from your county would be her supporters. However, a candidate who wins less than 15% of the convention doesn't have to be given any at-large delegates. The at-large delegation must also be used to make sure that the whole delegation is equally divided between men and women as far as mathematically practicable.