With all the talk this year of how close races - such as the Democratic presidential contest - will be decided by who wins the most delegates, it's not surprising that some voters were confused yesterday when they saw the Maryland ballot.
They were asked to vote both for president and for delegates to their party's convention, and under each delegate's name was the name of the candidate they supported. So which vote counts? What if, say, you voted for John McCain for president but for all of Mike Huckabee's delegates?
Party officials say they were not trying to confuse voters, and that the answer is simple: The vote for president is the one that counts. It doesn't matter which delegates you vote for - or even if you don't vote for delegates at all.
"What's the important vote is the vote for president," said David Paulson, spokesman for the state Democratic Party. "After that, it's a matter of just picking names."
The Democratic and Republican parties in Maryland award delegates differently, but both go by the popular vote for the candidate. The Republicans go with a winner-take-all allocation based on the popular vote in congressional districts.
Democrats also award delegates by congressional district, but do so proportionally. So if Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton split the vote in a certain congressional district, they would also split the number of delegates available from that district - even if everyone voted for Obama's delegates.
Democrats further complicate matters by asking voters to choose both male delegates and female delegates. That's because the party wants to ensure that its delegation is split 50-50 on gender lines.
The party also aims for a delegation with the same racial makeup as Maryland's Democratic voters. So, in addition to the 46 delegates awarded proportionally from the popular vote in congressional districts, there are another 24 add-on delegates. They are divided proportionally based on a candidate's statewide vote total. The party chooses those 24 delegates based partly on their race.
If it all seems a little confusing for voters, well, it can be. David Tager, 67, arrived at his North Baltimore polling place yesterday and was promptly puzzled by the ballot. "My wife and I did not know about the delegates," Tager said. "We were confused and didn't know what that was."
He asked the elections officials for help, and then the head judge, and no one had a clue. In the end, he voted for delegates associated with his choice for president, just to be safe.
And his choice? John Edwards.
stephen.kiehl@baltsun.com