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Dems’ primary may not count
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What if Democratic voters turned out for a presidential primary in Florida and their vote didn’t count?
No, this isn’t a Katherine Harris joke.
It’s an option national Democratic leaders are seriously considering as they grapple with Florida’s newly scheduled 2008 presidential primary date, which could upend the national primary process and produce yet another weird Florida election. Consider the scenario:
On Jan. 29, Florida Republicans and Democrats head to the polls to pick presidential nominees. Republican votes count, just as you would expect, but the results for Democrats would be nonbinding. No delegates would be awarded based upon the results and instead party activists and insiders would decide on some later date how to divvy up the state’s more than 200 delegates to the Democratic national convention.
Why not skip a few steps and make all elections non-binding? It’s much tidier that way… Hell, we should just go back to strange women lying in ponds distributing swords..
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This isn’t a new phenomenon. Washington State tried to change its primaries to an open primary where the top vote getters, independent of party affiliation, go on to the final election. The major parties objected and got it struck down as unconstitutional, IIRC. Their argument is that the process by which the party picks its candidate is something the party should be allowed to control, i.e. they feel that the parties ‘own’ the primaries. That wouldn’t be unreasonable if at least it were easier for new parties to participate.
Yes, kids, the Great American Democracy may have some flaws. Shocking! Don’t say it out loud.