Carter: Dem Leaders Should Follow People

[Scurrilous]

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"Former President Carter says Democratic superdelegates should follow the people and vote for the presidential candidate with the most delegates, but that they also should be free to vote the other way if they want.

Carter said in a taped interview broadcast Sunday that "it would be a very serious mistake" and "difficult to explain" if the superdelegates were to vote against the candidate with the most popular votes, the most delegates and the most states won.

In the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton trails Barack Obama in all three categories. But since neither is expected to win enough pledged delegates from the primaries and caucuses to get the 2,025 need to win the nomination, the nearly 800 elected officials and other party leaders known as superdelegates may have to decide who becomes the party's nominee. Carter is among them.

Asked whether he agreed that superdelegates should not overturn the will of the people, Carter said, "I basically agree with it."

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