What does delegate mean?

[Maggie]

Hi,guys

That's because unlike recent conventions, when the party tickets were firmly established, Obama and Clinton could conceivably end up short of the 2,025 delegates needed to secure the nomination.

Heading into Saturday's contests, nine pledged delegates separated Clinton and Obama. Clinton has amassed 840 pledged delegates to Obama's 831. By contrast, Sen. John McCain has built a commanding lead for the Republican nomination.

From the above two paragraphs,you guys can see the word,delegate. I looked up the dictionaries,and I found out delegate means someone who has been elected or chosen to speak, vote, or take decisions for a group if it's a noun here.

But I still don't quite understand what's the meaning of it. I guess delegate here means votes. Am I right? If no, could you explain it for me? Or could you give me an example to let me understand how to use the term as well?

Thanks so much in advance.

Maggie
_________________
In my view,the more mistakes someone else corrects me,the more I could learn.
And welcome to my blog: http://0rz.tw/793HL

[Mister Micawber]

.
A delegate is a person chosen to represent a group of people-- I cannot think of a simpler way of defining the word than your text already does: 'someone who has been elected or chosen to speak, vote, or take decisions for a group'.
.
_________________
Canadian-American native speaker
who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mr. Micawber