1. To determine the allocation of delegates for each state, both Democrats and Republicans used a formula which took into account population and past electoral support for their candidates. The 1988 Republican formula awarded six delegates for statehood and three per U.S. House district. Additional delegates included 4.5 plus 60% of a state's electoral votes if that state's electoral votes went to the Republican candidate in the last election; one for each Republican governor and U.S. Senator elected within the previous four years; and one if at least half of the state's representation in the U.S. House was Republican in one of the two terms within the previous four years. 2,277 delegates attended the Republican convention at New Orleans. The 1988 Democratic formula awarded three times a state's electoral votes plus additional delegates based on the state's average Democratic vote in the three preceding presidential elections. 4,160 delegates attended the Democratic convention in Atlanta. (Each state also sent alternates, in the event that regular delegates would be unable to participate for some reason.)

2. The frequently used distinction between “caucus” and “primary” states is too simplistic to capture much about current methods of delegate selection. Due to their historical development, the terms “primary” and “caucus” are often used in confusing ways. “Primary” is frequently used to refer to any election (binding or not) having to do with would-be presidential candidates. “Primary” will sometimes be used here too to refer to a vote held on a single day at regular polling places. However, “binding candidate preference primary system” refers to an entire process of delegate selection that includes both apportionment and actual selection.

“Caucus” also presents problems. It is used popularly to name a general system of delegate selection, as well as to mean, more generically, “political meeting.” Here, the lone term “caucus” and its derivatives always refer to a generic kind of activity which may occur within several overall systems of delegate selection, including the binding candidate preference primary system as well as the participatory caucus/convention system.

3. List of exemplary states throughout this essay are illustrative only and not intended to be exhaustive.

4. A review of the Democrats' special categories of delegates might be helpful here. The delegation of each state broke down into two major categories: delegates from congressional districts and at-large delegates who represented the state as a whole. The latter category subdivided into unpledged party and elected officials (or the ex officio delegates), pledged party and elected officials, and regular pledged statewide delegates. In its own literature, the Democratic party used the name “at-large” to apply only to the last sub-category—what are here called regular, pledged statewide delegates. Use of the term “at-large” in the typology developed in the text above always denotes the more generic meaning of one who represents a political unit as a whole rather than one of its subdivisions.

5. National Democratic rules allowed candidates to approve all delegates pledged to them, but the actual selection was not usually made by the candidates themselves, as was the case in New Hampshire.