Tuesday 6 March 2012: 110 of 136 delegates to the Democratic National Convention are pledged to presidential contenders based on the results of the voting in today's Massachusetts Presidential Primary. A mandatory 15 percent threshold is required in order for a presidential contender to be allocated National Convention delegates at either the congressional district or statewide level.

• 72 district delegates are to be allocated proportionally to presidential contenders based on the primary results in each of the State's 9 congressional districts.
• In addition, 38 delegates are to be allocated to presidential contenders based on the primary vote statewide.
  • 24 at-large National Convention delegates
  • 14 Pledged PLEOs

Here's how we compute the delegate count:

1. A candidate must receive 15% or more of the total popular vote to qualify for delegates. Discard votes cast for those candidates who do not meet the threshold.
2. Allocate Congressional District delegates from the qualified vote in each district. Allocate Pledged PLEO and At-Large delegates using the state-wide qualified vote.
3. In each jurisdiction (CD and statewide):
1. Total qualified vote = total votes cast for the qualifying candidates in the jurisdiction.
2. Allocation = (delegates for the jurisdiction) × (candidate's popular vote) ÷ (total qualified vote).
3. Assign each candidate the WHOLE NUMBER of delegates.
4. If delegates remain, allocate each of the remaining delegates to those candidates with the LARGEST REMAINDERS.

Saturday 21 April 2012: The Congressional District Caucuses meet to elect National Convention District delegates according to the results of the primary.

Saturday 5 May 2012: State Committee and National Convention Delegate Meeting

The Pledged PLEO and At-large National Convention delegates are selected by the State Party Committee.

The remaining 26 National Convention delegates consist of

• 26 Unpledged PLEO delegates:
• 11 Democratic National Committee members.
• 11 Members of Congress (1 Senator and 10 Representatives).
• 1 Governor.
• 3 Distinguished Party Leaders (former DNC Chairman Steve Grossman, former DNC Chairman Debra DeLee, and former DNC Chairman Paul G. Kirk, Jr.).

These 26 delegates and will go to the Democratic National Convention officially "Unpledged".

On 21 January 2011 H01972 was filed. This bill would change the state's partisan and Presidential primaries to be held concurrently on the 1st Tuesday in June-- 5 June 2012. Current law sets the Presidential Primary to the 1st Tuesday in March and the Partisan Primary to 7th Tuesday preceding the November General Election [The General Laws of Massachusetts, Title VIII, Chapter 53: Section 28.]. The bill's sponsors are Representatives James J. Dwyer (Democratic) and Bradley H. Jones (Republican).