Proxy voting was used in some American U.S. Presidential nominating caucuses . In one case , Eugene McCarthy supporters were in the majority of those present but were outvoted when the presiding party official cast 492 proxy votes – three times the number present – for his own slate of delegates . After the nomination of Hubert Humphrey , the New Politics movement charged that Humphrey and party bosses had circumvented the will of Democratic Party members by manipulating the rules to Humphrey 's advantage . In response , the Commission on Party Structure and Delegate Selection , also known as the McGovern-Fraser Commission , was created to rework the rules in time for the 1972 Democratic National Convention . State parties were required to ban proxy voting in order to have their delegates seated at the national convention . It was said that these rules had been used in " highly selective " ways
1972 Democratic National Convention
1972 Democratic National Convention
Proxy voting