For the Democrats in Florida and in Michigan. It's nothing complicated but I think it would work and you could cram it down the candidate's throats. First things first.
Do we really want to see people like this involved in the outcome of another election?
Florida: They had a valid primary back on January 29th. Florida's primary is a closed primary so we don't have to worry about any real disenfranchisement of voters in Florida. Clinton and Obama both were on the ballot, and there were originally 210 delegates to be seated from Florida at the convention. In the primary Hillary Clinton won with 50% to Barack Obama's 33%. If we subtract the number of Florida Superdelegates (22) there are a total of 188 up for grabs. Florida probably does deserve to be punished in some way for moving their primary against the wishes of the DNC, but it was not the people of Florida that decided to move, it was the State Legislature. I haven't researched this but I have heard from several news sources that the legislature could not get the primary moved without help from the democratic minority so let's not go blaming republicans for it. It's Florida, they're all to blame. so let's say that the DNC decides to seat 20% fewer delegates from Florida as a penalty. This leaves us with 146 delegates. If we divide delegates proportionately Hillary Clinton would get 73 delegates, Barack Obama would receive 48 delegates with the rest going to Edwards and Kucinich. Florida solved; most everyone happy right?
Michigan is a totally different animal. Michigan has 26 Superdelegates available and I doubt that the DNC would ever not seat Superdelegates so we'll assume the the 26 will be available in Denver. Now we need to figure out how to deal with the other 130. Firstly there's the penalty for moving the primary, so I'll start with 125 (rounded up from 124.8). Here's the specific problem with Michigan, not every candidate was on the ballot. I am not sure why Barack Obama wasn't on the ballot in Michigan but he wasn't.
Here is what I would propose for the Michigan do-over.
The first thing I would recommend is that the Michigan do-over be run as a closed primary. The idea of doing a new primary or caucus whatever is actually allowable in Michigan and have it be an open primary is just not feasible, but if it were a closed primary everyone who is a registered Democrat would be. I would prepare a ballot to be sent to every registered democrat in the state of Michigan and have it be return postage paid sealed postcard. Essential to the success of this process would be that it be verifiable. I would proposed that recipients of the ballot be required to call in to a "robo-verification" telephone number that would, after the voter entering in some basic information about their voter registration would be given a randomly generated verification number that would need to be entered into a field on the ballot. The verification number would be entered into a "scantron" panel a la school test format, number two pencil only please. This would allow more voters to participate, and provide a verifiable means to recount the election results if needed. The other bonus of this process would be the cost. I'm sure that the cost of postage would be significant but could come at a discount due to the sheer volume and the bulk rates the USPS offers. The biggest cost involved in this format would be the labor cost in counting the votes once they came in.
I know that there are other ways to skin this cat, but why is it that I can think of a reasonably fair and equitable option to a do-over in just a couple of hours and the DNC, candidates, State Officials, and talking heads can't? This solution would be affordable for the DNC, could allow more people to be involved, doesn't disenfranchise the base of the party or either candidate, and can be done rather quickly. Let's get it done, and let the Florida Primary stand as it was decided.
Posted by j.tonic at March 10, 2008 09:06 AM