For weeks, political pundits have pointed to today, Super Tuesday, as a crucial point for the presidential candidates, as scores of delegates will be doled out by many states.

Alex Tuckness, assistant professor of political science, said Super Tuesday is the biggest day for state primaries.

“It just is a Tuesday on which a large number of states hold primaries on the same day,” he said. “There are a lot more delegates at stake than there have been on any other day.”

Back in the infancy of primaries, they were all held one at a time, but throughout the years, more states have scheduled their primaries on the same day, said Jim Hutter, associate professor of political science.

“In a sense, we’ve been building to [Super Tuesday],” he said.

Hutter said the Super Tuesday states seem to form a good representation of all 50 states.

“You assume most people in most states would have similar views to the people in these states,” he said.

A large number of the delegates needed to win the respective parties’ nominations will be decided today, he said.

Delegates are chosen by popular vote in some states, but other states have different rules, Hutter said. “California counts the votes of everyone who’s voting, and that’s the beauty contest. But then only Republicans decide who’ll get sent to the convention,” he said.

Hutter said another example of the “beauty-contest” primary is Vermont.

“The people who get sent to the convention are not required in any way to vote the way the polls in Vermont voted,” he said.

Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science, said California, New York and Ohio will be the three key states to win, as they have the largest number of delegates.

Going into today’s contests, Texas Gov. George W. Bush had 170 delegates, while Arizona Sen. John McCain had 105. Alan Keyes, who is also running for the Republican nomination, has not received more than a small percentage of the vote in any state.

“Tomorrow is pretty important because the guy who gets the nomination needs 1,034 delegates, and tomorrow 613 are going to get picked,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt said delegates in Super Tuesday states comprise about one-third of the total Democratic delegates.

“The Democrats, they have a lot more delegates,” he said. “They actually need 2,170 to get the nomination, and right now, Gore and Bradley have almost no delegates because there have been almost no delegates elected.”

Schmidt said Bradley has 27 delegates compared to Gore’s 42.

“So right now, there’s not so much difference between the two in terms of delegates,” he said. “[But] in the polls, it really looks like Gore is seriously ahead in most places.”