It takes 2,383 delegates to win the nomination of the Democratic Party, and our count finds that Hillary Clinton has reached that number. Most are pledged delegates won in a primary or caucus. Some are superdelegates, who have unequivocally told AP they will vote for her next month at the party’s convention.
Clinton is now the "presumptive nominee," because according to our count, she now has enough delegates backing her candidacy to win the nomination.
AP will not call her the "nominee" until she reaches that milestone in Philadelphia next month, when the party’s delegates formally cast their vote at the convention.
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Senior Vice President and Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll:
AP concluded that Hillary Clinton had enough delegates to clinch the nomination after a painstaking but very straightforward exercise.
We counted.
By Monday evening, 571 superdelegates had told us unequivocally that they intend to vote for Clinton at the convention. Adding that number to the delegates awarded to Clinton in primary and caucus voting to date gave her the number needed to be the presumptive nominee.
That is news, and reporting the news is what we do.
Nothing in that discourages or prevents voters in six states from exercising their right to go to the polls today and cast their ballots.
See AP's delegate trackerRead How AP counts delegates