The Maine Democratic Party is officially the first Democratic Party to severely reduce the influence of superdelegates in the presidential nomination process. The amendment, proposed by state Rep. Diane Russell of Portland, overwhelmingly passed by voice vote during Saturday’s statewide party convention.
According to U.S. Uncut, the vote was followed by chants of “Ber-nie! Ber-nie!”
Under the new amendment, Maine’s superdelegate votes will be apportioned proportionally based on the results of the Democratic caucus, rather than giving the superdelegates complete autonomy to vote for whomever they want. However, it won’t help Bernie much as the amendment won’t take full effect until 2020.
“The superdelegate system is ridiculous,” Russell said in interview with U.S. Uncut.
“I woke up one day and I was like, alright, how do we fix this? What can I do? I can’t fix it at the national level. So what can we do at the local level?” she added.
U.S. Uncut reports:
While she’s happy with the success of her amendment, Russell said she wants to continue moving forward and eventually replace the delegate system altogether and choose the Democratic presidential nominee by popular vote.
“I hope people will stop focusing on the superdelegates themselves and instead focus on the system,” Russell said. “But that’s really something that has to happen at the national level.”