Each of the United States is assigned a number of delegates based on population. The purpose of a primary is to determine how to distribute those delegates, which are pledged to certain candidates and are pooled together nationwide to select each party’s nominee.

Nationwide, there are 2,380 Republican delegates; 1,191 are required to secure the nomination. Missouri has a winner-take-all policy, in which all 58 delegates are pledged to the winner of the popular vote.

The Democrats’ process is more complicated. Democrats have “super delegates” who are elected officials. Super delegates pledge support to the candidate of their choosing. Nationwide, 796 of the total 4,049 delegates available are held by super delegates. A candidate needs 2,025 total delegates to win the nomination.

Missouri has 16 super delegates. Eight are Democratic National Committee members, five are members of Congress and one is a distinguished party leader. The other two will be elected by the Democratic State Committee on April 5.

Missouri’s 72 additional delegates are chosen by the state election. Forty-seven are distributed among the nine congressional districts. Columbia is part of the 9th District and selects five of these delegates. The remaining 25 delegates are distributed according to the percentage of the vote a candidate receives statewide.

Counties and congressional districts hold caucuses to choose representatives to state and national conventions, but those delegates are obligated to vote in percentages that reflect the outcome of the Feb. 5 vote. County conventions are March 13 and district conventions March 27.

The Democratic Primary does not use winner-take-all. Instead, each candidate receives the same percentage of delegates as votes received. A candidate must, however, receive at least 15 percent of the vote to get any delegates.

The primary season runs through June 3, when Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota cast the last votes. Nominees will be officially chosen at their parties’ national conventions. Democrats will convene Aug. 25 to 28 in Denver, Republicans Sept. 1 to 4 in Minneapolis/St. Paul.