Obeying the rules versus the Voters

In the Democratic primary race there remains a nagging issue...how DO we solve the problem of Michigan and Florida.

Michigan and Florida had their delegates negated by the DNC after trying to move up their primaries. Something that was not permitted by the DNC rules that both state committees had agreed to.

But disenfranchising 593,837 Democratic voters in Michigan and 1,684,390 Democratic voters in Florida is not a good solution either. Florida has (well...had) 210 delegates and Michigan had 156.

One thing we should NOT do is let the vote that did take place, stand. As much as the Hillary supporters would like that, fair is fair and Obama was not on the ballot in Michigan and neither candidate contested either state more than the token appearance they were permitted.

Besides, both campaigns agreed to abide by the DNC rules so for one or the other to want to change now makes them no better than the state committees and legislature that tried to flout the DNC rules to start with.

But the nagging problem remains, how do solve the problem and NOT ignore 2.2 million voters?

The easiest solution is to seat the delegates and simply split the count 50% to Clinton and 50% to Obama. That essentially nullifies the effect but allows you to seat the delegates. But that's not REALLY fair.

The only REALLY fair thing would be to run the primaries over again. It doesn't have to be complicated. Breakout the voter registration books again. Paper ballots with a box and the name Clinton and another box and the name Obama and a locked ballot box. You verify voters the same way you do for any election and then let them mark the ballot and vote. Then you count the votes. You don't need to mail ballots to every single Democrat in the state...that's a waste, not every single Democrat is going to vote even if you do mail them a ballot.

Sounds 3rd world? Maybe, but it's also cheap and the biggest obstacle to rerunning these votes is the cost that neither state or state party are willing to absorb and the DNC has told them both that the national body isn't going to pay for it either.

The people of Michigan and Florida should be hopping mad at their state parties and legislatures that created this mess. Those parties and legislatures really don't have a leg to stand on when they were the ones that caused the problem. Nevertheless, people should be allowed to vote.

Because it's a close race, it's bad enough that we risk the people's vote being ignored anyway by backroom party officials. It would be adding insult to injury to say that we are going to ignore 2.2 million voters because their state party leaders and state legislators had comprehension issues.

Let the people vote again, make it simple, make it easy and solve the problem.

Comments

[Diamond]

A re-vote will give Florida and Michigan exactly what they wanted in the first place - the power to decide the nominee. When rules cannot be enforced, the leadership loses its power and sets a bad precedent where people think they can make their own rules.

A 50/50 split is ACTUALLY fair. The rule was that the delegates will not be seated - that the result will not count - and both campaigns AGREED. So if one campaign complains that a 50/50 isn't fair, well then how about 0/0? Because 0/0 was the rule!

[Allison]

My parents live in Michigan and voted Uncommitted as they are Obama supporters. They both believe the delegates should either be split 50/50 or not count at all. They are disgusted in the state democratic party leadership, a governor who can't seem to work with the legislature and a legislature that managed to pass moving up the primary, but has had tremendous difficulty getting a budget passed.

They would rather NOT have their votes counted versus rewarding a state who chose to break the rules of the DNC.

[Kirk Wentzel]

I see your point but we still end up punishing the voters for hat the leadership did. Perhaps the solutions is to re-take the vote but both states lose all their super-delegates.

I don't think either candidate can outright win even with both states being added back in. I agree the state committees should suffer a penalty but Idon't think it's fair to impose that penalty of he voters.

That said, a 50/50 solution is the quickest way to resolve the problem and I think most of us could live with that. Naturally some people wont be able to live with tat solution but somewhere along the way a resolution must be reached and stuck to.

Meanwhile, the Democrats of Michigan and Florida really ought to be giving an earfull to their state committees and legislatures.

[Joyful Alternative]

I agree with your fast paper-ballot solution, Kirk.

If we had just one candidate left standing at this point, then we (me and the DNC!) could punish Michigan and Florida by not allowing delegates from those states to be seated. But with things as they stand, I think a revote is fairest.