Magic Number 1,144

Introduction

If you have kept up at all with the GOP (Grand Old Party) presidential nominee race this year, you've heard the number "1,144" at least once--but why is this number so important?

For the last several months, Republican candidates Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum have campaigned in multiple states during the primary election system to become the Republican nominee to face Barack Obama for the Office of the President of the United States of America.  In order to become the nominee, the candidate must obtain 1,144 delegates.  A candidate obtains these delegates from each state's primary or caucus (whatever that particular state decides to hold) depending on what percentage of the vote they get from each state.  Got it?  Me either.  Let's take a look at this a little closer. 

What is a delegate?

"Delegates are individuals chosen to represent their states at their party conventions prior to a presidential election. The rules for selecting delegates, which are dictated by the parties, can be dizzying—the guidelines vary not only by party, but by state, and sometimes by congressional district" (www.cfr.org).  

During the Primary election process, when you vote during your state's primary (or attend your state's caucus) you vote goes towards the delegate of your state and they are thus required to vote for the candidate that you chose for.  Take, for example, the primary from Oklahoma:

(cnn.com)

As you can see, Rick Santorum received 96,759 votes, or 34% of the total votes.  Based on that tally, Santorum received 14 delegates (total delegates of 43 x .34=14).  Here's a good video on the nomination process:

How many delegates does each state have?

I could not find a good spreadsheet on delegate count per state, so I made one!  Please feel free to download and share as needed.  (Data from Cnn.com)

2012 Delegate Count

Why 1,144?


At the Republican national convention, all the delegates will meet and cast their vote for the candidate that their state voted for.  However, all a candidate needs to win the GOP nomination is 1,144--but why?  At the Republican national convention this year, there will be a total of 2,286 delegates.  In order for the GOP candidate to win the nomination, they must win majority of the delegate--i.e. half of 2,286 plus 1 (2,286/2=1,143 + 1=1,143).  If no candidates reach 1,144 delegates prior to the convention, all delegates will have a free vote and they can vote for whoever they choose--also called a "brokered convention".

Where do the candidates stand now?

(data from cnn.com)

So the question is, will any of these candidates reach 1,144 delegates?  It is still a long way to go, but the rest of the race will be interesting.  It is also important to note that depending on which website you visit, the delegate count might be slightly different.  CNN has their own analyst, FoxNews has their own analyst, etc.

Exxon Valdez disaster

Mar 24, 1989: In one of worst oil spills in recent history, the tanker, Exxon Valdez, ran aground and released 240,000 barrels of oil into Prince William Sound.

Today marks the 23rd anniversary of one of the most disastrous environmental events in history--the Exxon Valdez oil spill.  

As a result of the disaster, Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which tightened regulations on oil vessels and their owners.

What do you remember of the Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster?

Using Evernote to follow the 2012 GOP Election

What is Evernote?

Evernote is a tool that can help you remember anything.  You can take a quick note on your Iphone/Android smartphone, collect web clippings with the web clipping tool, or upload documents into new notes and organize and collect them into separate folders...and all of this is just a sampling of what you can do with Evernote. 

2012 Republican nominee election process

Later this year, we will be flocking to the polls to determine if we would like to stay with our current president, Barack Obama, or elect one of the GOP (Grand Old Party) candidates to the office of the President of the United States of America.  However, that won't take place until November 6th, 2012.  

In the mean time, the Republican party is currently underway to determine who they will select to face Barack Obama (incumbent) for the U.S. Presidential election.  The process by which a candidate is chosen to be the Republican nominee can be a very long, and sometimes complicated, political battle.  It involves each state selecting delegates to a particular candidate of their choosing by voting in a primary or attending a caucus (more on the process in a upcoming blog post, but if you have questions in the meantime, check out this article).  

Of course, the amount of data and articles that are produced during this process is massive.  You have all the major news channels (Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, etc) covering the election process with their own websites and blogs and you have major newspaper companies (Wall St. Journal, USA Today, Forbes, etc) covering the election in their online articles and print articles...the statistics and data are endless.  

Using Evernote to follow the 2012 GOP election

So the question is, "How do you keep up with all these massive amounts of data?"  This is where Evernote becomes a tool that you wonder how you ever lived without it.  Ever been surfing the web and run across an article that you would love to share with your students or your colleagues?  With the Evernote web extension, all you have to do is click a button and save it to your Evernote account...which gives you the ability to access it on your smartphone, tablet, or computer.  I've used it to clip articles about the candidates,    results from each primary and caucus, and other highlights from debates (here's a example of a web clipping of the exit poll from the Georgia Primary). 

Evernote Clearly

Evernote also provides another tool to provide a less-clutter reading experience, Evernote Clearly.  Evernote Clearly gets rid of all the ads that can sometimes come along with articles, making it where you are just clipping the content from the article.  Here's a article I clipped using Evernote Clearly about Ron Paul.    

So why do I use Evernote?

The benefit of using Evernote to keep track of the election is that once you've saved the article into your account, it stays in your account until you delete it.  So no more worrying that the website you got the article from will delete the article or spending hours of time doing Google searches for a article that you think you remember the title of.  Once you've clipped it, you can organize it into a notebook of your choosing (I've created a notebook specifically for the 2012 election) and assign tags to it to where you have quick and easy access to it whenever you need it.  

If you don't have a Evernote account, sign-up for one today--it's free!