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The Democratic Party uses a proportional representation to determine how many delegates each candidate is awarded in each state. A candidate must win at least 15% of the vote in a particular contest in order to receive any delegates. Pledged delegates are awarded proportionally in both state-wide and regional contests. In each separate state-wide or regional contest, a subset of the total pledged delegates are chosen based on proportional representation, so it is possible for candidates to win delegates even if they receive fewer than 15% of overall votes in a state-provided they receive more than 15% in a particular regional content. There is no process to win superdelegates since they can vote for whomever they please. A candidate needs to win a simple majority of total delegates to earn the Democratic nomination.

FROM THE CALIFORNIA DEMOCRATIC PARTY WEB SITE

How are Presidential Candidates allocated Pledged Delegates? – Candidates are allocated District-Level Delegates in each Congressional District in which they receive 15% or more of the primary vote. Candidates who receive 15% or more of the statewide vote are allocated PLEO and At-Large Delegates.

[At this time, the only two candidates who have reached the 15% threshold are Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.]

If Candidate A receives 50% of the statewide vote, then Candidate A gets 50% of the 90 At-Large Delegates and 50% of the 54 PLEO Delegates.

DELEGATE TYPES BROKEN DOWN

DISTRICT-LEVEL DELEGATES (Pledged) – 272 and 25 alternates

District-Level Delegates are one of the “Pledged” groups of delegates because they will be a guaranteed vote for (or pledged to) a particular candidate before the National Convention. Each of the 53 Congressional Districts (CDs) are allocated a certain number of delegates based on population and presidential voting from 2012 & 2016 elections. Using the same criteria, 35 of the 53 CDs are also allocated 1 Alternate each.

AT-LARGE (i.e. STATEWIDE) DELEGATES – 90 delegates and 10 alternates

Any registered Democrat who is committed to a Presidential Candidate can apply to be an At-Large Delegate. At-Large Delegates are confirmed by a vote of the 272 District-Level Delegates at the Statewide Delegation Meeting.

PLEDGED PARTY LEADERS AND ELECTED OFFICIAL (PLEO) DELEGATES – 54 Total

A PLEO is a registered Democrat from a particular category (see below) who has pledged their support for a particular Presidential Candidate. To be considered, the PLEO candidate must fill out the appropriate form and be pledged to a candidate who received at least 15% of the statewide primary vote. This group is also confirmed by the 272 District-Level Delegates at the Statewide Delegation Meeting. Those who are eligible to file as a PLEO are those from the following groups:

• Big City Mayors
• Statewide Elected Officials
• State Legislative Leaders
• State Legislators

UNPLEDGED DELEGATES – 79 Total

• Other State, County, and Local Elected Officials
• California Democratic Party Leaders

Unpledged Delegates are all automatic delegates based on their status. These delegates are “Unpledged” to a particular candidate. Unpledged Delegates cannot vote in the first round of balloting: They include:

• California Members of the DNC
• California Members of Congress
• US Senators
• Governor Newsom
• Distinguished party leaders such as CDP Party Chair, Standing Committee Chairs, etc.