Florida RevoteSo they’re talking about a re-vote in Florida. The methods are undecided, but some people are talking about mail-in ballots, which I think would lead to wide-spread selling of votes, which would be a bad development. Regardless, the real question needs to be: Who gets to vote? This is not exactly an idle question. Ok, so clearly you’ll allocate ballots to registered Democrats. And I suppose independents who pulled Democratic ballots. But what about independents who pulled Republican ballots? Clearly some number of them voted for McCain in the Republican primary, thinking that there effectively was no Democratic primary. But if they had known that they’d eventually had a chance to vote in a Democratic primary, they may have chosen to wait and vote there, instead of in the Republican primary. The whole thing is a mess, and I don’t really see a fair and equitable way out of it. The problem is that Dean’s punishment for Florida and Michigan was extreme. What he should have done instead is told the two states that they would only be seated last, and after the super-delegates, if and only if neither candidate had not received the number of delegates required to clinch the nomination already. But it’s too late now. Get ready for the inevitable zoo. |
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2 Responses to “Florida Revote”
March 10th, 2008 at 11:56 am
This is an excellent point. People really need to think logically about this.
There’s just NO WAY a revote could be any more “fair” than any other arbitrary “solution” at this point. It’s a waste of money at best.
Let’s not forget McCain’s high approval with Democrats. How many FL democrats, thinking their vote wouldn’t otherwise count, re-registered as republicans to give McCain a much needed boost against Rudy and Romney? Would their Democratic vote be denied in a revote?
The alternative is to allow any FL citizen to vote. But then you’d have the Limbaugh effect on steroids; and lots of voters with the unique historical position of being able to have their votes counted in both the Republican primary and the Democratic primary for this year.
Let’s face it, FL was a disaster and there’s no way to fix it. To paraphrase an old adage: you can’t put the fart back in the ass.
March 10th, 2008 at 6:39 pm
I’m tempted to fly to Denver for the convention. You’d have a really great view of the tear gas and flame from my parent’s condo.
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