2008 Woodie Awards
DNC should not re-stage vote in Michigan, Florida
Issue date: 3/11/08 Section: Editorials
Every presidential election seems to elicit calls for a reform of the Electoral College, but recent events have instead centered on changing the election while in its infancy-targeting the core of the state election schedule within the primary season. For a variety of reasons, there has been an increasingly popular movement to front-load the primary elections instead of allowing for a traditional, spread-out series of contests that see one Super Tuesday and then a multitude of virtually one-a-day polls. States that have been later in the primary schedule are usually perceived as inconsequential since a party's candidate has typically been chosen early in the nominating process.
Florida and Michigan, who generally hold primaries later in the season, decided to host primary elections Jan. 29 and Jan. 15, respectively. As a result of breaking with Democratic National Committee (DNC) mandates, these results were not counted in national delegate totals. However, due to the close nature of the Democratic race after the most recent round of primaries, there has been a renewed push to seat these delegates by conducting a re-vote in the two states. While there have been several solutions presented for attempting a second election, The Miami Student editorial board believes there should not be a re-vote and that the DNC's decision to punish states that break with party cooperation should be upheld.
This board believes that while it is unfortunate that Democrats of these two states are the victims of local party decision-makers, a higher priority for any political party should be maintaining its viability in the long-term, leading up to the general elections. The cost, at upwards of $10 million, is one concern we have about holding a re-vote. Additionally, a re-vote has the ability to fracture a party already concerned about the prospect of a long and drawn out nominating process that will likely continue until the Democratic National Convention in August. Furthermore, this board believes that proposals for splitting the cost of a re-vote or alternative systems like mail-in voting are completely untested and could lead to a confusing and overly complicated result late in the primaries.
Florida and Michigan, who generally hold primaries later in the season, decided to host primary elections Jan. 29 and Jan. 15, respectively. As a result of breaking with Democratic National Committee (DNC) mandates, these results were not counted in national delegate totals. However, due to the close nature of the Democratic race after the most recent round of primaries, there has been a renewed push to seat these delegates by conducting a re-vote in the two states. While there have been several solutions presented for attempting a second election, The Miami Student editorial board believes there should not be a re-vote and that the DNC's decision to punish states that break with party cooperation should be upheld.
This board believes that while it is unfortunate that Democrats of these two states are the victims of local party decision-makers, a higher priority for any political party should be maintaining its viability in the long-term, leading up to the general elections. The cost, at upwards of $10 million, is one concern we have about holding a re-vote. Additionally, a re-vote has the ability to fracture a party already concerned about the prospect of a long and drawn out nominating process that will likely continue until the Democratic National Convention in August. Furthermore, this board believes that proposals for splitting the cost of a re-vote or alternative systems like mail-in voting are completely untested and could lead to a confusing and overly complicated result late in the primaries.
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