Facts About Why Florida and Michigan Votes Were Not Counted

Roundup: Will Florida and Michigan Votes Be Counted? — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at the Care2 Election Blog)

Over the last few months I’ve made my feelings pretty clear on the issues of disenfranchising Florida and Michigan voters, a Florida recount, and my lack of love for Howard Dean. People who don’t really know the facts, are quick to judge, and claim that Florida and Michigan broke the rules and deserve their punishment. However, a smart Democrat (and I’m not referring to Howard Dean, just in case there is any confusion) would see the bigger picture. And the bigger picture is…Democrats have a slim chance of winning the general election without Florida and Michigan.

Here is some of what other bloggers are saying on this issue. Let me know what you think in comments.

From Center for Media and Democracy…

On Saturday the Democratic National Committee Rules and Bylaws Committee will meet to decide the fate of Florida and Michigan’s delegates to the Democratic National Convention. As DNC members, the 30 rules committee members are all superdelegates and also have a vote at the convention. Between them, 13 have endorsed Hillary Clinton, eight have endorsed Barack Obama and nine are uncommitted. They also include one DNC member from Michigan (uncommitted) and one from Florida (endorsing Hillary), who are unable to cast a vote concerning their home states. (See the full membership here.)

The committee will hear challenges to its earlier ruling that Michigan and Florida’s delegates would not be seated at the national convention, with their votes thus not counting towards the presidential nomination. Bringing the challenges are Florida superdelegate and DNC member Jon Ausman (undeclared for either Clinton or Obama) and a representative from Michigan’s state democratic party. Other representatives from the two state parties and the presidential campaigns will also make their case to the committee.

The committee will hear three specific challenges:

• The Michigan Democratic Party is challenging with a compromise plan between the Clinton campaign’s call for all the delegates to be seated according to the January vote (with 69 going to Clinton and the 59 earned by the “uncommitted” slot on the ballot going to Obama because he was not listed there) and the Obama campaign’s call for the delegates to be split evenly, 64-64. This would result in 69 going to Clinton and 59 going to Obama.
• Ausman is challenging that the DNC rules dictate that a state party breaking the primary schedule (as Michigan and Florida did) will be penalized by losing half their pledged delegates (those resulting from the primary results) and not all, as was previously ruled by the committee. This would result in Florida’s delegates going roughly 52 for Clinton, 34 for Obama and 6 for Edwards.
• Ausman is challenging that the Florida party charter specifies that its superdelegates will be seated, regardless of any penalty imposed on the pledged delegates. The current tally from Congresspedia’s Superdelegate Transparency Project is that eight of the superdelegates are committed to Clinton, five are committed to Obama and 13 are uncommitted.

From CNN Political Ticker…

A day before the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is set to determine how to seat the delegations of Florida and Michigan, the Clinton campaign’s chief lawyer said the committee is compelled to seat both delegations fully and not award Barack Obama any delegates from Michigan.

In a letter addressed to the co-chairs of the RBC, Clinton lawyer Lyn Utrecht said both states have already been sufficiently punished because of lack of campaign activity.

“It is a bedrock principle of our Party that every vote must be counted, and thereby every elected delegate should be seated,” Utrecht wrote. “The States have already been punished because no campaign activity was conducted in Florida or Michigan. There is no requirement or need to punish their duly elected delegates who represent the 2.3 million voters in Michigan and Florida who participated in the nominating process.”

Here are some excepts from an Open Letter to Howard Dean, Super Delgates, the Media, and the DNC – Marc Rubin at Tom In Paine…

The most resistance to fully counting Florida and Michigan has come from Senator Obama and his supporters. Their argument is that those states broke “the rules” when they moved their primaries up and therefore should not count. And what rules were those? No rule that in any way invalidates or calls into question the validity or accuracy of the results of elections in which 2.3 million people participated. Saying that “the rules are the rules” is not good enough. This country was founded by people who said there were higher and more important principles at stake than King George’s rules, especially when “the rules” were unfair.

. . .

Regardless of whom anyone supports, no Democrat can support votes not being counted. Not anytime but especially not after what happened in Florida in 2000. The Democratic Party cannot send out a candidate for President who is there only because votes weren’t counted.. It cannot send out a candidate for President who is carrying an asterisk on their back.

All the delegates must be seated and all the votes counted as per the results of two fair and full elections.

. . .

TO THE NEWS MEDIA: The issue of the Florida and Michigan delegates is and has always been, an internal DNC issue. The popular votes in those primaries are not. Regardless of what the DNC decides with regards to the delegates, there is not now, nor has there ever been, even a remotely rational reason not to count the results of the popular vote from both states. The popular vote is just that — the popular vote. People went to the polls. They voted. Their votes were recorded and certified and they are a legitimate reflection of the will of the people. By not including Florida and Michigan in the popular vote totals and an auxiliary delegate count that shows the true results including both states, the media has skewed, distorted and misrepresented the true status of this nominating process. They have given the country a completely false impression of the status of the race, the true will of Democratic voters at any given time, and have created a false atmosphere surrounding this entire process.

By ignoring Florida and Michigan and their impact on this election, the media has not only slighted the people of those states, but the 17 million people who have cast votes for Senator Clinton and the democratic process itself. The news media has been nothing less than irresponsible in not including the votes from Florida and Michigan, the validity of which has never been called into question.

WITH REGARDS TO MICHIGAN: Many people, with no knowledge of the events in Michigan (and some who do know but choose to ignore them) try to point to the claim that Senator Obama wasn’t on the ballot: This is a straw man and entirely untrue as it impacts the results of that election.

As reported by the Des Moines Register in October of 2007, Senator Obama chose to take his name off the ballot for political reasons after his polling showed him losing in Michigan by 20 points and to win favor with a show of solidarity with the first in the nation status of the upcoming Iowa caucus. Senator Obama, however arranged to have his name represented by a line that read “Uncommitted” on the Michigan ballot. John Edwards joined, and every voter in Michigan who went to the polls that day knew that “uncommitted” represented both Senator Obama and John Edwards. The proof that they knew is that “uncommitted” received 40.7% of the vote, the second highest total to Senator Clinton’s 56%. There has also been the assertion that Senator Clinton was the only name on the ballot. That is also untrue. Other Democratic candidates were on the ballot that day. The only question to be resolved is how to apportion the 40.7% of the vote represented by “uncommitted” between John Edwards and Senator Obama and that is not difficult.

. . .

Super delegates, the news media and party leaders have a moral, ethical and patriotic obligation to respect the will of all the people and the news media to report facts accurately and fairly not according to their own agenda. The electoral process must be respected and so must the results it produces. Florida and Michigan delegates must all be seated and their popular votes must be counted. These votes must be included in any super delegates’ deliberations regarding the true will of the people and who is the strongest candidate in November.

Seat all the delegates. Count all the votes. To do anything less will guarantee irreparable damage to the Democratic Party not just in November but in every facet of the nation’s business for years to come.

Kay Day at Covering Florida (also at The US Report)

Just when you thought the Democratic National Committee couldn’t stir the Florida and Michigan pot beyond a boil, the scenario has moved to a state akin to an explosion. Sort of like the day my husband tried to warm up a boiled egg in the microwave. And now Sen. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has entered the political milieu, telling The San Francisco Chronicle she’ll “step in” if she has to so the brawl doesn’t reach the national convention in August in Denver. What’s she gonna do? Hit somebody on the head with her gavel?

Florida’s governor Charlie Crist has appeared on several national news shows in the last two days. He’s peppered with questions about Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) intentions for a GOP running mate, but Crist is stressing counting all the votes cast in our primary. And he doesn’t overlook the Republican Party strategy to halve the delegates. He wants both parties to count all the delegates.

From Jamie Dupree…

I’ll say it again: Too bad Florida and Michigan didn’t decide to have a replay primary, because it would certainly give us a furious finish to the Democratic Presidential race.

Instead, a bunch of party officials will sit in a hotel ballroom in Washington, D.C., trying figure out how to put the best face on this delegate pothole.

This is from Electile Dysfunction…

Tomorrow, the Democratic National Committee’s Rules and Bylaws Committee is meeting to discuss the options they have for seating these previously punished delegates from Michigan and Florida.

This committee is in a very difficult position, because they need to maintain its primary process, but they do not want to anger the 2.3 million Democratic voters in Michigan and Florida and do not want to prolong the battle for the nomination.

And did I mention that Michigan and Florida are swing state electoral goldmines that are vital to winning the general election?

So, here’s my solution. Let’s start with Florida.

Florida is pretty simple. Since every major candidate was on the ballot in Florida and no one campaigned there, the DNC should seat the Florida delegates that were elected on January 29, giving each delegate a full vote at the convention.

Clinton’s people will be happy, and Obama’s people will have to put up with it because they don’t want to start another argument that would prolong the start of the general election campaign.

Michigan is much trickier. Clinton’s people want to seat the delegates as is, which means that since no one voted for Obama officially, he should receive no delegates. The DNC will not go for this, and will look for a compromise, that could be very complicated.

But I have a simple solution. Since Edwards endorsed Obama, and the bulk of Edwards’ pledged delegates have already shifted towards Obama, I would give Obama all of the uncommitted votes. Then I would give each pledged delegate half of a vote at the convention.

Then, the DNC should strip the state party leaders who were responsible for moving up the primaries of their superdelegate status, and fine both state parties.

This way, Obama will be relieved that it’s all over and done with, Clinton won’t have much of a leg to stand on because the DNC would be ruling in her favor, and it won’t affect the overall outcome of the primaries. Clinton’s supporters will most likely not be angered by the outcome, and will probably be willing to support Obama in the fall.

The Democrats need these two states in the fall, so they must favor Clinton with their decisions, so those 2.3 million voters feel like their voices have been heard. The DNC should not punish these voters for what their party leaders did, and they cannot risk losing Michigan and Florida’s combined 44 electoral votes in the general election because of their pride and stubbornness.

From The Left Coaster…

If there is one thing I regret the most in this campaign, that would be the fact that I was not paying any attention in the Fall of last year to the DNC’s shenanigans on Florida and Michigan. I just assumed it was a silly game and like many others I assumed that those delegates would eventually get seated – and therefore paid little attention to the goings on back then. The fact is, I really ought to have written about it and pointed out that it was completely unacceptable to strip FL/MI of all their delegates – which is contrary to the traditional “punishment”. That I didn’t do so was my mistake.

Also See:

RealClearPolitics

The Daily Democrat

Glamocracy

Common Sense Quotient