Friday, May 30, 2008
Michigan and Florida
Apparently the Democratic National Committee will exercise its power and resolve the nomination issues about Florida and Michigan this weekend. Since it's the entity that leveled the sanctions in the first place, it seems implausible that they'd simply drop them now.
In Florida, everyone was still on the ballot so the results presumably meant something fairly close to what the voters intended. In Michigan, however, things were quite different. Edwards and Obama removed themselves from the ballot in Michigan as they had been instructed to do by the DNC but Hillary refused to remove herself from the ballot. Technically she got 40.02% of Michigan's democratic primiary votes her and "other" got 55.23%. But consider:
— all the "other" votes could have been meant for Edwards, or
— all the "other" votes could have been meant for Obama, or
— all the "other" votes could all have been write-ins for me or you
It's a certainty that all the "other" votes were not meant for Hillary since she was already on the ballot. And it's pretty much a certainty that all the "other" votes weren't for Obama either because that's not what voters do, especially early in a primary season (it was only the third primary). In other words, there's absolultely no way to know who would have received what portion of 55.23% of Michigan's democratic primary votes.
If a large percent of the "other" votes would have gone to Edwards, it could have utterly changed the direction of his candidacy and possibly the outcome of the entire democratic nomination. Hey - if the DNC drops the sanctions entirely, maybe Edwards will sue to demand that the entire nomination season be re-held!
It is immoral and unfair to apportion the Michigan popular vote in any way since there is no possible accurate way to determine what the voters intended.
In Florida, everyone was still on the ballot so the results presumably meant something fairly close to what the voters intended. In Michigan, however, things were quite different. Edwards and Obama removed themselves from the ballot in Michigan as they had been instructed to do by the DNC but Hillary refused to remove herself from the ballot. Technically she got 40.02% of Michigan's democratic primiary votes her and "other" got 55.23%. But consider:
— all the "other" votes could have been meant for Edwards, or
— all the "other" votes could have been meant for Obama, or
— all the "other" votes could all have been write-ins for me or you
It's a certainty that all the "other" votes were not meant for Hillary since she was already on the ballot. And it's pretty much a certainty that all the "other" votes weren't for Obama either because that's not what voters do, especially early in a primary season (it was only the third primary). In other words, there's absolultely no way to know who would have received what portion of 55.23% of Michigan's democratic primary votes.
If a large percent of the "other" votes would have gone to Edwards, it could have utterly changed the direction of his candidacy and possibly the outcome of the entire democratic nomination. Hey - if the DNC drops the sanctions entirely, maybe Edwards will sue to demand that the entire nomination season be re-held!
It is immoral and unfair to apportion the Michigan popular vote in any way since there is no possible accurate way to determine what the voters intended.
Labels: 2008 election
Permalink | 
| posted by jau at 9:14 AM
DADvocate — at 11:38 PM, May 31, 2008:
| posted by jau at 9:14 AM
2 more:
DADvocate — at 11:38 PM, May 31, 2008:
ligneus expresses my thoughts exactly. After all the screaming the Dems did in about improprieties the last two presidential elections, they screw up their own primary process completely.
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