dnvrstdnt101

I'd personally be furious if I lived in either Michigan or Florida. The states have been sanctioned for having early primaries. The people of the states didnt chose for that to happen. The decision was made on the state level. Now their vote won't count. How is that right?

Caltex

I doubt it will have much affect on the nomination. The candidate will still get momentum from winning the state and thus affect the election.

They have far more power as early states without delegates than a late state like Texas with tonnes of delegates.

__________________

Sebelius for VP, not Hillary

I disagree. Michigan not counting helps Hillary a lot. Don't know what affect Florida being disenfranchised in the Democratic race has.

I totally support taking away all the votes in Michigan and Florida. When Michigan and Florida break the party rules and move forward, it decreases the influence of all the other states who followed the rules. Rule breakers generally get penalized. Why should we make an exception here?

__________________
Forum Rule 3: Discuss the Issue, not your opponent.

SamInTheSouth

Because isn't every vote supposed to count? The Democrats have run around screaming about voter disenfranchisement after the last two Presidential elections and then they go and actually engage in it in front of the whole world for all to see.

__________________
Carolina Politics Online

Sam

Sebelius for VP, not Hillary

Voters in a primary should be disenfranchised if they break the rules. There's a difference between breaking the rules and being punished, and having your vote thrown in the garbage by a Republican so that a Republican can be President.

You think that cheaters should be allowed to have their vote count? Also, the Republicans have disenfranchised half the voters in Michigan and Florida, so why not criticize them too?

__________________
Forum Rule 3: Discuss the Issue, not your opponent.

feldem

If I was a Democrat, I would be pissed as hell. (I live in Florida)

W.E.B., it's not that we should be allowed to break the rules, its just that last time I checked, the average voter didn't have much of a say on whether the primary got moved up or not. And thus, if I were a Democratic voter in an crucial election, I would be very mad at my party for not being able to come up with a solution amongst themselves that would involve me not being disenfranchised.

I would also be mad at the candidates in my party, who signed pledges to not campaign at all in my state, other than to collect money. That sort of behavior is typical of everything I hate about government.

Yes, us Republicans lost half of our delegates. I'm not thrilled about that, but at least my vote will still have some impact on who receives the GOP nomination, instead of being completely null and void. Plus, on a selfish note, since Florida is a winner-takes-all, and my candidate probably won't win, less delegates for someone else =)

As much as I despise the mainstream Republican party, I am simply glad that I am not a Democrat. I was reading an article about how supporters of Obama and Hillary are putting up cardboard cutouts of the candidates around town since they refuse to campaign here. In addition to at least having half of my delegates, at least I was able to see Paul speak in person, and have the opportunity to see Rudy at my school this week.

As someone who lives here, I wake up every day not believing that Democratic voters are not more pissed off about this.

__________________
"Men buy things already made in shops. But there is no shop that makes friendship, and so men have no friends anymore."-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

"Humans are interested in communication with extraterrestrial intelligence. Would not a good beginning be improved communication with terrestrial intelligence? With humans of different culture, and with the dolphins?"-Carl Sagan

AzTeK

I don't know for sure, but aren't the primaries/caucuses just a sort of privilege anyways? I mean, not only does the party not have to adhere to the results at all in the end if it doesn't really feel like it, it could in essence just go alone with the nomination instead of asking the people. That this would probably be unwise is another thing, but still, it's not like anyone had the right to choose who gets nominated for the party. It's not an official election or anything of the sort, is it?

In other words, the rest of the states should be happy they are allowed to get involved in the process, while Florida and Michigan just...well, didn't get lucky.

__________________

feldem

Aztec, again, I mentioned it would be the party itself and the candidates I would be mad at if I were Democrat, not the "government" or the "system" or anything like that.

Privilege? What's a privilege is that us voters support these candidate's careers. They can take away the right to chose who gets the nomination all they want, but if they're going to stay the hell out of my state unless they are getting a check, they lose the privilege of me being in their party, because I can tell you without a doubt that I would switch parties over this if I were not already a Republican.

__________________
"Men buy things already made in shops. But there is no shop that makes friendship, and so men have no friends anymore."-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

"Humans are interested in communication with extraterrestrial intelligence. Would not a good beginning be improved communication with terrestrial intelligence? With humans of different culture, and with the dolphins?"-Carl Sagan

Eaglefish

I live in Florida. Tomorrow there will be a primary. I know, everyone knows that, but what's forgotten is that the Dems are also having a primary and the Democratic party has punished Florida for doing so by disallowing it any delegates in the Convention. So here's a possibility. Clinton loses the convention election because she can't have access to Florida's votes (she is ahead by a mile in polls), and once again Florida ruins democracy from being enacted.

Sebelius for VP, not Hillary

The new "Florida spoiler" thread is very similar to this other thread we have running. Threads merged.

__________________
Forum Rule 3: Discuss the Issue, not your opponent.