Superdelegates should switch

This weekend I participated in a Democratic Party presidential caucus for the first time in my life. I proudly voted for Bernie Sanders, and, in fact, so did Spokane, so did Washington state, overwhelmingly.

Every single county across Washington state voted for Bernie Sanders. The final results were 73 percent of delegates for Bernie, 27 percent for Hillary Clinton.

The Democratic Party, however, follows the fundamentally undemocratic practice of allowing approximately 15 percent of all delegates to be awarded by elected officials, party leaders and, literally, lobbyists – not the voting public. Washington state has 17 superdelegates and nine of them committed their vote to Hillary Clinton before the voters in Washington state had even caucused.

The job of these representatives is to represent the interests and views of their constituents who voted them into office. With the overwhelming caucus results in favor of Bernie Sanders, every single superdelegate that has committed to Clinton is greatly misrepresenting the desire of their voting districts.

We voters determine the re-election chances of our representatives, so I urge the following superdelegates to switch their delegate vote to Bernie Sanders: Jay Inslee, Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, Suzan DelBene, Denny Heck, Derek Kilmer, Rick Larsen, Jim McDermott and Adam Smith.

Michael McBride

Spokane