Advertisement New Hampshire Republican Party launches online petition supporting … Bernie Sanders NHGOP says Democratic superdelegates should back first-in-nation primary winner Share Shares Copy Link Copy

New Hampshire's Republican Party on Monday launched an online petition urging the state Democratic Party's superdelegates to “listen to their constituents” and support New Hampshire primary winner Bernie Sanders at the party’s national convention.Sanders won the primary vote by a margin of 60 percent to 38 percent over Hillary Clinton, but he appears to be tied with Clinton in the state delegate count.“How is this possible?” the NHGOP petition says. “Because Democrats have set up an undemocratic system that allows party elites called ‘super delegates’ to single-handedly cancel out the votes of thousands of grassroots activists.”The superdelegates are top party-elected and national party officials who automatically receive delegate status.Democratic Party spokeswoman Melissa Miller responded:"This NHGOP stunt reeks of desperation. They’re clearly trying to do whatever they can to distract from the constitutional crisis that our nation has been plunged into thanks to Mitch McConnell and Kelly Ayotte’s obstructionism on the Supreme Court nomination process.""New Hampshire Democrats have a long tradition of unifying behind our nominees, and we look forward to doing so and trouncing the party of (Donald) Trump up and down the ballot in November,” Miller said.Miller was referring to Ayotte's support for Senate Majority Leader McConnell's position that the Senate should not move forward with the confirmation process for a U.S. Supreme Court replacement for the late Justice Antonin Scalia until a new president is in office. The Democratic Party will send 32 delegates to the convention from New Hampshire, and as a result of the primary vote, it appears that Sanders will emerge after delegate voting is completed in April with 15 delegates compared to nine for Clinton.But six of the eight superdelegates are Clinton supporters, bringing the totals to 15-15.The superdelegates backing Clinton are Democratic National Committeewoman Kathy Sullivan, DNC Committeeman William Shaheen, DNC member at-large Joanne Dowdell, Gov. Maggie Hassan, U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster.Two superdelegates have yet to make their choices.One of the two, state party chairman Raymond Buckley, as a vice chair of the DNC, is prohibited by national party rules from supporting a candidate until the nominee is determined. The other, state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, stayed neutral in the primary and said she has yet to make a decision.There are 712 superdelegates nationally. A total of 2,382 delegates and superdelegates are needed to win the Democratic presidential nomination.Clinton has already secured the support of 394 delegates and superdelegates, compared to 44 for Sanders, according to a chart by Bloomberg Politics.A New Hampshire Democratic official said that in the end, when the national convention opens in Philadelphia in mid-summer, the state delegation will vote unanimously for whoever the nominee turns out to be.The Republicans have a different process, based entirely on the proportion of the votes received by candidates in the primary. Donald Trump is expected to receive 10 of the state’s 23 GOP delegates.The NHGOP petition says, “Even though we vehemently disagree with Senator Sanders on his radical socialist agenda, we stand with his supporters who want their voices to be heard.”“It’s time for Governor Hassan, Senator Shaheen and Congresswoman Kuster to listen to their constituents and pledge to cast their votes at the DNC Convention for New Hampshire’s primary winner – Bernie Sanders.”