Getty
Now that Joe Biden has been projected to win the South Carolina primary, the delegate counts are closer than ever in the Democratic primary. Who has the most delegates among the candidates so far? How do Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders compare to each other and the other candidates? There’s a slight chance that Joe Biden might end up with more delegates, depending on how the final vote count in South Carolina aligns. However, he’s currently projected to end up with 16 delegates, which would put him short of Sanders’ total. Delegates are awarded proportionally. You can see a live delegate count in the third section of this story, provided to Heavy by Decision Desk. The delegate count will be updated to reflect South Carolina’s delegates, likely later tonight.
Before South Carolina, Sanders Had 45 Delegates to Biden’s 15
Before the South Carolina primary, Bernie Sanders was leading in delegates with 45. Pete Buttigieg was second with 26 and Joe Biden was third with 15.
Here’s a screenshot of Decision Desk’s delegate tracker totals before the South Carolina primary.
Delegate tracker before South Carolina
All this could change depending on how the proportions end up in South Carolina. Delegates there are awarded proportionally; this is not a winner-take-all state.
South Carolina Has 54 Delegates Available Based on Tonight’s Vote
Fifty-four delegates are available in South Carolina based on tonight’s vote. These delegates are awarded proportionally. A candidate must meet at 15 percent threshold in order to get delegates, according to The Green Papers.
The delegates include 35 district delegates awarded proportionally based on primary results in the seven congressional districts and 19 delegates based on statewide primary votes (12 at-large and seven pledged PLEOs). The state also has nine unpledged PLEOs, who are essentially superdelegates. These include seven DNC members and two members of Congress (two Representatives).
Live Delegate Tracker
In theory, if someone walked away with 100% of the votes, they could get 54 delegates tonight. But that’s not the case tonight. As of 7:45 p.m. Eastern, Decision Desk was estimating that Biden might get 16 delegates. Here’s a live delegate tracker from Decision Desk that will be updated tonight after the votes for South Carolina come in.
If Biden gets 16 delegates, that would put his total at 31, which would be higher than Buttigieg but still below Sanders. Keep in mind that Sanders will also get delegates tonight based on his percentage too. So it’s not super likely that Biden will end up with more delegates than Sanders once the night is over, but it’s still a possibility.
Candidates need 1,991 pledged delegates on the first ballot in order to not have a brokered convention at the DNC. As you can see, we’re still a long way away from that point.
After tonight, the South Carolina precinct reorganization meeting is March 14, followed by County Democratic Conventions from March 14 through March 31, and then the state convention on May 30.
The Democratic National Convention will take place July 13-16. According to Ballotpedia, there will be 4,750 delegates total, including 3,979 pledged and 771 automatic (more commonly known as superdelegates.) In order to not have a contested convention, a candidate needs 1,991 pledged delegates on the first ballot. (Superdelegates aren’t allowed to vote on the first ballot.) If no candidate gets this majority of pledged delegates, then a second ballot (or more) will take place and both pledged and automatic delegates can vote this time. From then on, a candidate needs the majority of all delegates to win, which is more than 2,375 votes.