Former President Bill Clinton may play a bigger role in the nomination of the Democratic candidate for president than many people realize. The former president is a "super delegate" to the nominating convention in Denver in August.

Clinton is joined by Jimmy Carter, Al Gore, many state governors, members of Congress, retired congressional leaders and all of the national committee members for the Democrats. Each member of the super delegate group, which consists of about 850 people, exercises more power in the nominating process than other delegates. The Republican Party does not use the same system.

There are more than 4,000 delegates in the Democratic National Convention. Some are "pledged" delegates based on voter support in state elections. Nearly 40 percent of them are super delegates whose support is not pledged to a particular candidate. Candidates must obtain 2,025 votes to win the Democratic presidential nomination.

Super delegates can vote for any candidate in the Democratic nominating process. They are not tied to a candidate based on voter preferences in any state. Super delegates may also announce their support for any candidate prior to an election. But because they are "unpledged" delegates to the convention, they may shift their support to another candidate at any time.

The 1972 Democratic National Convention produced George McGovern as the Democratic presidential nominee. Although he won the nomination by a wide margin, he lost the presidency in a landslide to Richard Nixon, winning only one state and 37.5 percent of the popular vote. Because of this, the Democratic Party instituted super delegates as a safeguard to guarantee party control over the nomination process. Political experts say this system was put in place so the party could avoid a mistake by voters in nominating a candidate.