How are superdelegates chosen?

Although the selection process of super-delegates is slightly different in the Democratic and Republican parties, in both cases, governors, senators and  Representatives from Congress comprise a large percentage of the super-delegates. Usually, former governors, former presidential nominees, prominent cabinet members and even business leaders with close ties to the party establishment will get seated as super-delegates.

Ultimately, the Democratic and Republican National Committees are the final arbiters of who gets to be a super-delegate and who doesn't, so if an individual is trusted or owed favors by the national committee of either party, that person can become a super-delegate, regardless of his or her qualifications or lack thereof. There is no formal election of super-delegates, nor is there any governmental oversight of the selection process, because the political parties are considered private groups, not public entities.

The selection process of super-delegates often occurs in private, or at the very least, it does not have to be made public. Due to the fact that this selection process is guided by each party's national committee, those national committees themselves can change the rules on how super delegates get selected, and the actual composition of the national committees can and do change from year to year. That means that the selection process of super-delegates can be changed with a simple vote of party insiders, so any criteria that may exist today could be gone in months.

The most important point to remember about the selection of super-delegates is  that whole point of having them is to give the party establishment a couterweight against the will of the people. The national committees of each major party invented super-delegates for the express purpose of reversing potentially bad decisions by their rank and file voters. If that sounds anti-democratic, it is because it is.

If the primaries do not yield a candidate acceptable to the party elite, then that party elite, through the use of their superdelegates, can override the will of the people. Consequently, the selection process of super-delegates reflects the will of the party establishment, not of voters at large.