Though the political lingo didn’t seem to bother anyone at this time last year, as election time draws closer, being able to understand what politicians and political analysts are actually saying is becoming a more difficult task.

Many automatically assume that both the Republican and Democratic way of doing things during primary season is the same, but that statement couldn’t be more false.

The Republican Party’s delegates are more straight forward than the Democratic delegates, mostly because the party doesn’t have superdelegates like the Democrats.

A candidate needs 1,911 out of the 2,380 total national delegates in order to win the GOP nomination. Out of these delegates, only 123 members of the Republican National Committee are allowed to vote for either candidates at the convention this summer.

Out of the 123 delegates that are free to vote which ever way they would like, 26 have already vowed their vote in support of John McCain and three for Mike Huckabee.

The Democratic way of deciding who will win the party’s nomination is much more complicated. They have two different kids of delegates, pledged and unpledged (also known as superdelegates).

A delegate that is pledged is an elected official that is representing a segment of the American population that has the understanding that they will support a certain candidate. These delegates make up about 80 percent of those that will vote at the Democratic National Convention.

The pledged delegates are selected in two different ways, according to whether the state holds a caucus or a primary.

When voters participate in a caucus, the delegates are awarded to candidates based on how they did in each of the community meetings.

In states that hold primary elections, such as Tennessee, the candidates will receive proportional representation to how they did in that particular state’s primary election. However a few states, such as New York, are called “winner take all” states, which means whoever gets the majority during the primary election will receive all of the delegates that the state has to offer.

Though these delegates have made a commitment to support a particular candidate, bound by the party rules to follow through with the pledged vote, therefore they are technically allowed to vote however they would like to at the convention.

However, the Democratic Party’s superdelegates add up to be the missing 20 percent of the vote at the convention. These unpledged delegates are picked by the Democratic National Committee, which include members of Congress, governors, former presidents, vice presidents and congressional leaders.

Superdelegates, like pledged delegates, may pledge support for a candidate, if they choose to do so. However they are not bound by the decision and may change their minds when it comes time to vote.

After both conventions are held over the summer, the complex process of projecting how many delegates or superdelegates each candidates has will be over and the much less complicated decision process will begin.