Saturday, May 31, 2008

Will Florida and Michigan Primary Votes Count?

Today I'm watching (on C-Span's Campaign 2008) the hearings held by the Democratic National Committee's Rules & Bylaws Committee. Members will be making decisions as to whether or not delegates from Florida and Michigan will be seated at the Democrat's convention and, if so, the distribution of delegates among candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama. These decisions will be difficult. After all, will the rules be followed or will modifications be made? I can't help but wonder how this mess happened. After the 2000 presidential election in which Florida voters, many of whom were Democrats, believed their votes were disregarded, why didn't the intelligent people in the Democratic Party see this potential ramification and come up with PRE-PRIMARY corrective actions? Readers of this blog probably have no input in the committee decisions. However, there is something we can do. A part of this problem lies with legislatures voting on bills that include add-ons. There are a number of us who want to see legislative bills be limited to ONE topic ONLY. When our representatives vote on that type of bill, we know exactly where they stand! If this one-topic idea had been the policy in Florida, the bill to create a paper trail of votes would have NOT included anything about changing the date of the Democratic primary and we wouldn't be in this mess now - at least as far as Florida is concerned. Democrats in Florida, who voted YES to invoke a paper trail, would not be classified as voting to approve the primary's change of date. Anybody have a thought on Michigan? Now, what can we do? We can email legislators, especially in our national Congress, to stop these add-ons! We teachers know the best action is to master one objective at a time! Too bad more teachers aren't in Congress!