What About Super Tuesday is Super?

By Katherine b. ‘22

With the 2020 presidential election quickly approaching, much of the major news media within the US is focused on updating Americans on the constantly changing political climate, but what exactly are they saying? 

One of the most important current events surrounding the presidential election is Super Tuesday, but most news coverage doesn’t explain its significance. So what exactly is Super Tuesday? Super Tuesday, held this year on March 3rd, is the date in the primary elections when many states hold their primary elections. During each state's primary election, delegates from each state can be won by a candidate depending on who wins in each state. Super Tuesday is the day when approximately ⅓ of the delegates that are needed for a candidate to receive the presidential nomination for their party can be won, more delegates than can be won on any other primary election day. 

Super Tuesday lets people see what candidates other states are voting for, which allows the public to see the projected results of the primary elections overall. This year’s Super Tuesday states are Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia. The date primaries are held is up to each state’s government, but many states want to hold their primary on Super Tuesday, as it allows those states to have an early say in which candidate may get the presidential nomination. 

After the results of Super Tuesday were released, the candidates leading the Democratic party after Super Tuesday are Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. Though Elizabeth Warren had the third most votes after Super Tuesday, she trailed behind Sanders and Biden by hundreds of delegates and ergo dropped out of the election. Leading the Republican party is President Donald Trump. There have been considerably fewer Republican candidates than Democratic candidates over the course of the entire election.

Another frequently discussed topic regarding the upcoming election is the Iowa caucus, but that topic too is infrequently explained. The Iowa Caucus is the first moment within the presidential election when voting occurs. This is the first opportunity people have to vote on the Democratic presidential candidates. The winner of the Iowa Caucus doesn’t necessarily receive the nomination for the Democratic party, but the results certainly do affect the results of the rest of the election. However, this year, the results of the caucus were unable to be released to the public. This isn’t because the results are being purposefully withheld from the public, but because the results were lost. 

Part of the complications of this caucus were because of a new smartphone app created solely for the purpose of collecting the results of this count. The expectation for the caucus was that the results would be reported using a new smartphone app, but the collection of votes didn’t go exactly to plan. If the representative for each precinct didn’t want to use the app, they could also report over phone lines. Many representatives decided to use the phone lines, but that caused the phone lines to be overwhelmed by the influx of results, preventing the results from being accurately collected. Along with the overloading of the telephone lines, the smartphone app had technical issues, which resulted in incorrect transmissions of the results 

While all of this information may be overwhelming, one of the most important things to take away from this is that it is extremely important to vote. Every single voice deserves to be heard, and in an election like this, you are playing a part in the future of your country. Stay educated and aware of what is going on within the election, and get out and vote when the Maryland Primary occurs on April 28th. Juniors and Seniors: register to vote now!