Super-voters

What's the deal with super-delegates anyway? Are they bad for the democratic process of the Democratic Party? And in the Republican primaries, one vote more than the opponent yields the winner all of the votes. Is that fair?

We've had similar super-voters in our presidential elections since the U.S. Constitution was ratified over 200 years ago. They're called Electors -- of the Electoral College.

Witness the presidential elections of 2000 and 1876, and 1800, and in fact most presidential elections: with the Electoral College system of super-voters, the principle of one man one vote does not seem to apply.

[UPDATE 2008.04.25: The Wall Street Journal published an analysis today of the changing methods that have been used to determine the number of Electors for each state.]