Florida, Michigan delegates get half a vote

0 Comments | Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Jun 1, 2008 | by Dan Balz Washington Post

The committee spent more than five hours hearing challenges Saturday, breaking for lunch about 3 p.m. After another three-hour "lunch break," the committee returned with their compromises ready for votes.

The committee began its deliberations by taking up the Florida challenge. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson delivered an emotional appeal to the committee, urging the members to reflect the will of the 1.7 million voters who turned out for the state's Jan. 29 primary.

"These voters violated no rule," he said. "They committed no crime. They did not move the election date forward. The Republican legislature did. Yet they are the ones who would be unfairly punished, and in my humble opinion they do not deserve punishment. They deserve to be heard."

Florida State Sen. Arthenia Joyner, representing the Clinton campaign, traced her own history as a civil rights protester before delivering a powerful appeal to restore Florida's delegation in full with full voting rights.

"You have a unique opportunity right here and right now to write the people of Florida back into this historic election story," she said. "You have the power to say yes, their votes count; yes, their delegates should be seated; yes, their Democratic Party believes that their voices should be heard."

Rep. Robert Wexler, representing the Obama campaign, agreed with others that Florida's delegation should be represented in Denver but conceded that the committee was within its rights to allow half votes for each -- associating the campaign with the proposal of Jon Ausman of the Florida Democratic Party.

Wexler also ducked a question from Clinton supporter and rules committee member Tina Flournoy, who asked whether Obama backs giving Florida delegates full votes in Denver. From the audience, there were cries of "Answer the question!" and "Yes or no!"

Michigan proved the more controversial challenge for the committee, largely because Obama and three other Democratic candidates took their names off the Jan. 15 primary ballot, while Clinton and three others did not, and because the ballot specifically allowed people to cast a vote for "uncommitted."

The particulars of the Michigan experience and the legal fine points of DNC rules created a situation in which the two campaigns and the Michigan Democrats were proposing competing outcomes, all of which drew resistance from some committee members as unallowable under the rules.

Michigan Democratic chairman Mark Brewer and Sen. Carl Levin, representing the state, asked for their full delegation to be reinstated with full voting powers. But, calling their primary flawed, they recommended an allocation of the delegates based not only on the results but also on exit polls and an estimate of uncounted write-in ballots.

On the basis of those calculations, they said Clinton should receive 69 delegates and Obama 59. Clinton's campaign called for allocation based on the primary, giving her 73 delegates to Obama's 55. Obama's campaign said the delegation should be split 50-50 between the two candidates but did not take a position on whether the Michigan delegates should receive a full vote or half vote.