DNC Allows Early Primary States Half a Vote

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DNC Allows Early Primary States Half a Vote

DELEGATE BATTLE: This weekend the Democratic Party decided to allow Florida and Michigan delegates half a vote at the national convention. Barack Obama's campaign calls it fair while Hillary Clinton's calls it hijacking.

by Mike Maxwell
Informify Staff Writer
June 2, 2008

Democratic Party leaders wanted to resolve the conflict over Florida and Michigan's early primary elections. At the same time they wanted to send a clear message to states: Don't break party rules and hold your primaries early. They split both states' delegates according to popular vote, and awarded Michigan's uncommitted delegates to Obama despite loud protest from Clinton supporters.

Half a Delegate Better Than No Delegate

When the national party stripped Florida and Michigan of their delegates, they lost their say in the Democratic primary election.

Voters and representatives from the two states wanted delegates restored. That way they could attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August and cast their votes.

The rules committee decided to allow Florida and Michigan delegates to attend the national convention with a caveat: Their votes will only count for half. The national party intends to discourage other states from breaking party rules for primary elections in the future.

Clinton Wants All Votes

Clinton won the majority of the popular vote in both states' races. Because she remains behind Obama in the delegate count, her campaign pushed to restore all Florida and Michigan delegates.

Without Obama on the Michigan ballot, Clinton won 55% of the votes. Another 40% voted for "uncommitted." At the rules committee meeting, Clinton supporters argued for all the delegates, including those who had voted for "uncommitted."

Obama Wants Uncommitted Votes

Obama's campaign also supported restoring some of the delegates, but not to the same degree as Clinton's.

Obama's campaign advisers knew in advance that Michigan Democrats had violated the national party's rules, and that they'd likely lose their delegates. That's why Obama chose not to participate in Michigan's Democratic primary. At the rules committee meeting, Obama supporters argued for the "uncommitted" votes, saying they were clearly intended for him.

Compromise Costs Clinton More than Obama

The committee's final decision was to split both states' delegates according to popular vote. The committee awarded Michigan's "uncommitted" delegates to Obama despite loud protest from Clinton supporters observing the meeting.

The committee's decision plays out like this:

Clinton		Obama
Florida	Michigan	Florida	Michigan
105	69	67	59
½ = 52.5	½ = 34.5	½ = 33.5	½ = 29.5
TOTAL: 87 delegates		TOTAL: 63 delegates

Although Clinton ends up with more delegates, the difference is not enough to threaten Obama's current lead.

Last Week of Democratic Primaries

Clinton won the primary elections in Puerto Rico on Sunday. With 55 delegates at stake, her win gives her the majority of them. Even with that, though, Clinton still lags behind Obama.

The last two primary elections happen tomorrow in South Dakota and Montana. Most political analysts forecast that Obama will maintain his lead of more than 100 delegates.

Question for Readers:

Do you think the media are being too negative about Clinton's chances of becoming the Democratic nominee?

The first states to hold their presidential primaries—usually Iowa and New Hampshire—receive a great deal of attention from the media:

Election results from those states often forecast the final results across the country.
States that hold their elections later in the year complain that Iowa and New Hampshire voters have too much influence over the party's nominee selection.

State Democratic parties in Florida and Michigan decided to move their primary elections up so they could sway the race in its earliest stages.

Well before the primary season began, the national Democratic Party discouraged states from changing their primary dates.
National Democratic leaders worried that parties in every state would rush to be one of the first few elections. Primaries would then be held earlier, making the whole presidential election process even longer.
Hoping to maintain the status quo, national party leadership allowed states that had scheduled their primaries for January to keep them there. But they prohibited other states from holding their primaries before February 5, 2008.
Florida and Michigan ignored the rule and held their primaries early. The national party then stripped them of their delegates. In other words...their votes wouldn't count.

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Note: does not include Puerto Rico delegates. Clinton won the popular vote there yesterday.

Source: Democratic Delegate Count (NY Times)

Sources

Delegates get split decision (Washington Times, 6/1/08)

Democrats Approve Deal on Michigan and Florida (New York Times, 6/1/08)

DNC rules hearing: a peek under the hood of democracy (LA Times, 6/1/08)

Results: Democratic Delegate Count (New York Times)

Clinton Beats Obama in Puerto Rico (Washington Post, 6/1/08)

Today's Other Stories

Thanks for the comment. This is an issue I've been mulling for awhile now. We here at Informify try to maintain objectivity in our reporting, but sometimes it's tough to see the forest for the trees.

Personally I can't remember a primary race where the reporting was so numbers-based. The over-emphasis on delegate count has resulted in an under-emphasis on qualitative things such as the candidates' platform positions. So this year, instead of covering the pros and cons of Clinton and Obama's health care plans, we're analyzing their delegate counts.

It's likely that Clinton's campaign suffered because of this. Once Obama pulled ahead on delegate count, Clinton's campaign was usually portrayed as an attempt to catch-up. As the campaign progressed, the numbers looked worse and worse, so the media reported it that way. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

We will work to do better in future reports about the primary and national elections.

June 02, 2008

Pro-Obama biased media

crat3 from fl said:

The pro-Obama biased media have interfered in, undermined, and subverted the Democratic presidential nominating process. The pro-Obama biased media continue to sabotage Sen. Clinton's campaign with impunity.

June 01, 2008

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