Florida and Michigan Primaries cannot be allowed to count at this point!

[ddeclue]

Hillary-ites are now saying ex post facto that the Florida and Michigan primaries should be allowed to count now that they know the results of those primaries and now that those primaries were hopelessly corrupted by the Democratic National Committee's ruling that their delegates would not count.

No one really knows how Florida or Michigan voters might have voted had their primaries been allowed to be counted by the DNC prior to their respective election day and no doubt being told their votes did not count caused many a voter not to vote or to vote differently than they otherwise might have done.

As an Edwards grassroots volunteer in Florida I know that I was able to get 400 Edwards supporters to show for an event in Orlando where the Senator spoke several weeks prior to the DNC's ruling and the candidates subsequently signing the Four State Pledge not to campaign here. Once those two acts transpired though, interest in John Edwards (and the other candidates as well) fell off dramatically here in Central Florida.

Any attempt by the Hillary-ites to now try to seat Florida and Michigan delegates is cynical and hypocritical game playing given that Hillary Clinton willingly signed the Four State Pledge and now that Hillary knows the outcome is favorable to her own campaign. Where was her courage back in July of 2007? Why did she sign the pledge back then BEFORE she knew the outcome of the vote?

Doug De Clue
Democrat
Orlando, FL

[mihalevich]

1. Can they re-vote in June?

[Frances]

3. Personally, I think they should have to abide by the rules

Allowing them to revote in June would just reward them for breaking the rules IMO.

If Florida and Michigan had not been so determined to go first, they would have had a real say.

[ddeclue]

5. I would think that is still hopelessly tainted...

given all that has transpired, the vote would not be what it would have been had the Jan 29th vote been allowed to count and had all the candidates (all 9 of them) spent time campaigning in Florida.

Doug D.

[madfloridian]

8. The two states will not allow a revote...they like the outcome.

.

[Mojambo]

2. Yep. They should be off the table at this point.

Any fight on that issue will wound the party so badly that a general election win would be unlikely.

[asthmaticeog]

4. Exactly.

If the franchise of Floridians and Michiganders was sooooooo important to the Clinton campaign (and to her fans on DU), why not fight for it *before* the elections, instead of running unopposed and trying to move the goalposts after the fact? Fucking disgraceful.

[spin]

6. I'm a Florida voter...

Nobody asked me my opinion on moving the primary forward. I never voted to move the primary. Why should I and the other voters in Florida and Michigan be disenfranchised because of some stupid political disagreement?

I have to admit that I was furious when I learned my vote in the primary wasn't going to count. What ever happened to "one person one vote"? What ever happened to the concept of a fair election? Why should my vote not count in the process to pick a presidential candidate in possibly the most important Presidential election of my life?

I see a lot of posts on DU discussing the problems with electronic voting machines. I share the feeling that we need a better voting system with a verifiable paper trail. But the way it looks right now, the votes in two states will be thrown away, flushed down the political toilet as worthless.

Yes many people did vote in the primaries in Florida and Michigan, but many didn't. I voted because I always vote. I feel it's my obligation as a citizen. Many people I talked to didn't bother to vote, just because they felt it was useless. Who can say how the primary would have ended if everyone believed it really counted.

Should we change the rules and allow the results in Florida and Michigan to count? No! Not without another primary being held, one that everyone knows will count.

You can bet that the Hillary supporters would oppose another primary in the two states because, quite possibly, she would lose.

In reality, as close as this race is, the votes from these two states could be he deciding factor.

Every vote should count! Every vote should be verifiable. Elections shouldn't be stolen by politicians playing games or hacked computer programs.

[BenDavid]

7. I say vote again on the same date as the final state votes on

June 3rd, and if the democratic party has to pay for the damn vote state wide in both Flordia and Michigan then I say pay it, and let the public vote......there will be no damn caucuses and what is good if I understand correctly only Dems can vote and no damn crossover republicans...let each vote count.....

[LiberalFighter]

9. If they are both included I believe it would require about 2208 delegates to win.

Michigan 156
Florida 210

[VotesForWomen]

10. good idea; piss off FL and MI voters for the GE. who needs them anyway? nt

[JCMach1]

11. Rules will have to resolve this...

they might go for a compromise of seating the delegates, but uncommiting them.

[ButterflyBlood]

12. You CAN'T hold an election understood to be non-binding and retract on it

Imagine if an exhibition game was played in some sports league. Then after the game the team that won insisted that the game be counted. So the league retroactively makes it an actual game.

If Florida and Michigan are allowed to revote, go ahead, but the complete mockery would be making valid the results from the joke contests held in January.