Marquette Professor Paul Nolette Explains How Delegates Will Be Won in Wisconsin

Wisconsin is not a winner take all state.

That means all the delegates do not automatically go to the top finisher in the presidential primary.

Instead there could be a dividing of the pie that might make declaring a candidate with momentum hard to spin once the election is complete.

Marquette University Assistant Professor of Political Science, Paul Nolette, was a live guest on the CBS 58 News at 4 p.m. to talk about how candidates might spin the results depending on how they finish.

That interview is attached to this story.

The Democratic Delegate Breakdown involves a total of 96 delegates that will be going to the national convention.

Of that total 86 are what we call "pledged delegates".  The pledged delegates are allocated to a candidate in proportion to the votes they receive in our primary - if a candidate receives at least 15% of the votes cast in the primary then they are eligible for a share of our pledged delegates. 

There are three types of delegates: congressional district delegates (57 delegates), at-large delegates (19 delegates), and party leaders and elected officials (PLEOs - 10 delegates). 

Congressional district delegates are allocated proportionally based on the results in the district. For example, if Hillary wins 40% of the vote in a congressional district and Bernie wins 60%, approx. 40% of the votes in that district would go to Hillary and approx 60% of those votes would go to Bernie. 

At-large and PLEO delegates are allocated proportionally based on statewide primary results. Same thing applies here, if the split is 40/60 statewide - then each candidate would receive an approximate percentage of the at-large and PLEO delegates. 

Lastly, we have 10 unpledged delegates (aka super delegates). These delegates are not required to adhere to the results of the primary on April 5.  

Wisconsin's list of unpledged delegates in 2016
Senator Tammy Baldwin 

Rep. Ron Kind 
Rep. Gwen Moore 
Rep. Mark Pocan 

Democratic Party of Wisconsin Vice Chair David Bowen   
Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Martha Laning
DNC Member Christine Bremer Muggli 
DNC Member Martha Love 
DNC Member Jason Rae
Currently vacant DNC Member Spot

 There are 42  Wisconsin delegates to the Republican National Convention.

The primary results will determine who gets  24 district delegates in each of the 8 congressional districts.

Each congressional district is assigned three National Convention delegates and the presidential candidate receiving the greatest number of votes in that district will receive all three of that district’s National Convention delegates.