Super Tuesday isnt one election . Its not even 16 elections, although voters in 14 states, an overseas territory and Democrats who live outside the United States will all cast ballots. Its actually more than 150 elections: Full states, congressional and state Senate districts, all places where the candidates are racing to get at least the 15% of the vote needed to win delegates. More than 1,500 delegates are up for grabs, nearly 10 times as many as the voters handed out in the four early states.

The sheer number of candidates remaining in the race Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders , former Vice President Joe Biden , former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren , former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar are all at least registering a pulse in national polling meaning most candidates wont be eligible to receive delegates in most places, and each campaign will need to intensely study how to best allocate their resources to maximize their delegate hauls.

A field this large is unlike anything weve seen recently, said Addisu Demissie, a Democratic operative who managed New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker s presidential campaign. It quickly becomes a massive puzzle thats very difficult to solve.

Every last percentage point matters: If one candidate manages to get 30% of the vote in a district or state, while all of his opponents remain under 15%, he will pick up every delegate available. But if that candidate stays at 30%, and four other candidates manage to break the 15% barrier, the candidate could receive just a third of the available delegates.

That could result in a boon for the candidate with the largest and most loyal group of supporters so far: Sanders, the progressive icon who leads the field in both delegates and national polling and is looking to indisputably establish himself as the favorite for the nomination.

Bernie will have viability everywhere, Demissie said. There will be very few places where he doesnt hit 15%, and there will be places where hes the only person to do so.