Florida Governor Charlie Crist, a Republican and McCain supporter, is getting behind the recent calls for a re-vote in the Florida Democratic Primary:
March 2 (Bloomberg) — Florida Governor Charlie Crist said he’d support a repeat of the Democratic presidential primary so the state’s delegates can be counted at the party’s national convention.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said he’s open to the possibility. Primary elections are paid for by a state’s taxpayers, so the offer from Crist, a Republican, is “very helpful” because money is an issue, Dean said.
“We’re very willing to listen to the people of Florida,” Dean said on CNN’s “Late Edition” program today.
The Democratic Party stripped Michigan and Florida of their delegates to the convention as punishment for holding votes before the sanctioned date of Feb. 5. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, head of the Democratic National Convention, said last month that delegates from those states shouldn’t decide the nomination.
New York Senator Clinton beat Illinois Senator Barack Obama in the Florida contest Jan. 29, though neither campaigned there in accordance with the party’s decision. Clinton won in Michigan after her rivals withdrew from the ballot.
(…)
Dean said the dispute over seating delegates is the fault party leaders, not Florida voters.
“If they would like to fix that problem so that we can seat Florida without any problems, of course we would like to seat Florida,” he said.
Crist said, “I think it’s very important though that those delegates are seated.
“I’m hopeful that the Democratic National Committee comes to the conclusion it’s the right thing to do,” he said on CNN today.
I would expect to see Clinton jumping on this train in a last ditch effort to pull off a win, unless she can be persuaded by party leaders to just give up already.
March 3rd, 2008 at 5:04 pm
It’s very important to follow rules in an election. Some rules may appear to be very silly, be we should not change the rules mid-race. Clearly, Hillary Clinton wants to break her word, change the rules, and seat the Michigan and Florida delegates now in order to catch up to Barack Obama, who leads the delegate count by over 160 heading into the March 4th Primaries in Texas, Ohio, Vermont, and Rhode Island.
As it stands, the Michigan and Florida delegates cannot be seated according to their original Primary votes. Obama’s name wasn’t on the ballot in Michigan, and neither candidate was allowed to campaign here in Florida, which severely handicapped the lesser-known Obama.
In nearly every state (at least for the past several elections), the trend has been the same… Clinton leading by 25 points, then 10, then 5, then a tie, then Obama wins. There is a reason candidates campaign before elections. An election without campaigning makes no sense.
It is essential for the Democratic party to be, well, “democratic”. Unfair elections cannot, and should not, count toward selecting the Democratic nominee. However, at this point, neither candidate will be able to secure the 2,025 delegates needed to become the nominee. Therefore, there are only three (3) logical solutions:
1) Don’t seat the Michigan and Florida delegates.
2) Split the delegates 50/50 to help give the leading candidate enough delegates to win the nomination.
3) Hold a REAL Democratic Primary/Caucus to undo all the damage of the first (unfair) result.
In the case of option 3…
Voters must be given at least 30 days’ notice to change their voter registration, if necessary, from “Independent” to “Democrat”, and the candidates must be given time to campaign in Florida. This would provide an unquestionably fair and accurate result!
March 4th, 2008 at 3:40 am
Let the voters decide!!! Two million people made the effort. Give them a chance to have their votes counted.
March 4th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
Just seat the damn delegates. They shouldn’t have punished them in the first place. Why would there be a re-vote? Unless something happened in the original contest illegal then the votes should be simply counted. You think we’d have learned our lesson from 2000.
March 5th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
[…] As I noted earlier this week, Governor Christ has already suggested a re-vote in Florida. […]
March 6th, 2008 at 4:07 pm
My chad was dangling and I meant to vote for Hilary anyway. We need a recount!
March 8th, 2008 at 11:22 am
Once again the few decide for the many.
Citizens of Florida & Michigan please put the power back in your hands and vote out every one of those morons who obviously saw his coming but did nothing to stop it.
This means Democrat and Republican alike.
March 9th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
Let’s revote until the Clintons win. It’s the only fair thing to do.
March 13th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
The decision was made by the Democratic Committee several month ago and the penalty issued. There was no clamor from the voters to let the votes count. Why can we allow them to revote now? Besides it would be wrong to go against a legal decision concerning a breaking of a government rule. Also, I was not asked by Charles Crist if I wanted a revote. It may not be possible for every voter involved will vote the same way or be able to vote. It is too risky. Florida has had too much trouble stirred up concerning elections. Don’t allow the revote! Thank you for listening to me.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
There is a big grassroots movement happening in Florida and Michigan to have the people fund a revote at http://floridamichiganrevote.com/it is a new sit getting a lot of buzz.
May 27th, 2008 at 4:30 am
If the revote goes wrong too, are you going to have campaings for more revotes?
Is it going the same way as in zimbabwe?
Surely one vote then a count is enough….