In a new poll which was released on Wednesday, April 27^th, more than half of Americans who were polled believed that the current presidential nomination process is “rigged”. “The popular vote overwhelms the rules usually, but in these close elections, everyone pays attention to these arcane rules”, Larry Sabato, who is the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics said about the current system.

The poll which was conducted between April 21^st and April 26^th, surveyed 1,500 citizens and revealed that 51% believed that the current system was “rigged” and another 27% do not understand sufficiently enough the current presidential primary system.

“I’d prefer to see a one man, one vote system” Royce Young said, who is a South Carolina resident and supporter of Hillary Clinton. The one man, one vote reference, refers to the delegate process, where voters send delegates to the party conventions this summer to support their candidate.

The results of the poll should be of no real surprise as two of the major candidates, one of whom Donald Trump is the Republican Party front runner, and the other, Bernie Sanders, is challenging the Democratic Party nominee and has a large following, have both been claiming in numerous instances, that the process for the nomination system in both parties is “rigged”.

In one of his most famous accusations of the system being rigged, Mr. Trump blasted the Colorado Republican primary results, by saying “The Colorado system for selecting Republican delegates is rigged and that the system is crooked.”

On the opposing side, Senator Sanders an Independent turned Democrat running for the Presidency, has also said that the nomination system is rigged and has complained that the super delegates is an unfair way of selecting the nominee.

“When we talk about a rigged system, it’s also important to understand how the Democratic Convention works” Senator Sanders  said during an interview Monday, referring to the Super delegate rule. A Super delegate is an unelected delegate who is free to support any candidate for the presidential nomination at the party’s convention.

“We have won at this point, 45% of pledged delegates, but we have only won 7% of super delegates” Senator Sanders continued.

At this point in the Democratic race, former Secretary of State Clinton has 1,645 delegates, with 520 super delegates, while Senator Sanders, has 1,318 delegates with 39 super delegates. 2,383 delegates are needed for the Democratic nomination.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump leads with 996 delegates while Ted Cruz comes in second with 565 and John Kasich in third with 153. 1,237 are needed for the Republican side. Mr. Trump has complained about numerous instances throughout the process, including when he blamed Mr. Cruz for falsely claiming that Ben Carson was going to drop out before Iowa, which would have split the voters between the two.

There was another instance where a Colorado GOP voter posted a video to YouTube showing him burning his GOP registration card after the state voted and Trump supporters claimed dirty tricks were played by Senator Cruz.

In the end, it is important to know and have voters informed if the system truly is “rigged” for the democratic process to work correctly, but on the other hand, it is truly disingenuous to claim that the system is rigged if you are using that excuse to explain why you are losing in the process.

Links to Sources:

1. Washington Examiner Article: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/poll-half-of-americans-think-presidential-nominating-system-rigged/article/2589676
2. Reuters Exclusive Poll:  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-primaries-poll-idUSKCN0XO0ZR
3. Politico, Sanders Link: https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/05/02/sanders_there_will_be_a_contested_convention_system_is_rigged.html
4. Politifact Colorado Election Link: https://www.politifact.com/colorado/statements/2016/apr/19/donald-trump/trump-calls-colorado-caucus-system-rigged-theres-n/
5. GOP Voter Burns Registration Card on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrqLQK7ecNE