Is is democratic to disinfranchise Florida And Michigan voters?

Florida and Michigan knew the rules and chose to break them. They knew if they broke the rules their vote would not count. Are we suppose to reward those who break the laws and rules?

If the voters were really worried about being disenfranchised, they should have stopped their party leaders from breaking the rules.

Laws and rules are not always fair but they are laws and until they are changed they must be complied with. Without these kind of standards things would me so screwed up there would be no sanity. What Florida and Michigan should have done was moved to have the rules changed then made their change. They knew the rules and went ahead anyway (Like Bush and his misuse of office). When the Democratic Committee made their decision to enforce the rules Florida and Michigan should have appealed. In stead they waited far into the campaign (actually after Clinton made an issue out of it) to try getting the decision reversed. It was too little to late: they should have worked to get approval first, they should have appealed the decision earlier, and they should not be blaming anyone but themselves. Rules are rules; if they are not good they need to be changed but just doing what you want in spite of the rules is not the right approach!

It is a Democratic Party practice- enough said- not quite, the constitution specifically addresses states authority in election procedures while not mentioning any authority of political parties. The states of Michigan and Florida can leave the Democratic Party off their Ballots and put all candidates names from their primaries as presidential vote possibilities in any order they choose on ballot- the have historical precedents and courts would probably back the procedure while Telling DNC- 'you have no standing in federal court compared to state defined in constitution'. ** Other posters seem to be under the impression that the DNC can legally tell states how to run elections- please point out in constitution where it says a political party has authority over a states election rules and procedures as defined in the constitution. DNC may make their own rules- but a state going to federal court with a civil rights complaint against DNC would probably get triple damages and court costs for it's voters for DNC misconduct**

The voters In Fl and Mi both new if the y changed the voting date they could lose the deligate that get to go to the convention. To change the rules after the start of the ellections are underway is wrong.

I find it funny is that the states fund 50% of the cost of the elections and the people here in Fl pay for that with our tax dollars. I'm a registared independent I can not even vote in primaries but I must help pay for them and thats the crime.

ill try to answer this for you in very clear terms so maybe this time you'll understand

Its not the DNC's fault. FL and MI legislature was warned that if they put their primaries ahead they would lose their delegates. That Means that they knew before the primaries started, what the penalty would be. They Knew that they would lose their delegates and they did not care because it was well known at the time that CLinton would have the Nomination Sewn up by January.. that did not happen. Now guess whos pulling to have those votes count even though she agreed months ago that they would not count.

If they do not allowed the Fl & MI votes to be counted as they should then you are going to see a lot of voters voting McCain in Nov.

Last I checked this country has 50 states not 48 I couldn't care less about their stupid rules every vote should count, the message the Dem's are sending to voters is play by our rules or else. BS.

Let every vote count!

Sorry, I could not resist. I find it so ironic that FL was an issue in 2000 and is again in 2008. If Dean had been smart, he would have followed the republican party’s lead and only penalized them half their delegation instead of all of it.

Well, it sucks, but these are rules that were agreed upon before the primary season began. All of the candidates, including Hillary, signed off on those rules. They were even warned - I don't understand why they went ahead and moved their primaries up. Were they like bratty children testing the limits? Did they think the DNC wouldn't follow through with their threats?

The DNC isn't fair or balanced...I think that term has been coined and trademarked by the FNC already.

I don't see how the DNC is feeling that any of this was right, however I really don't care: they were the ones dumb enough to hire Howard "hollerin" Dean.

As you said, rules are rules. You didn't make an argument in favor of ignoring those rules nor did you point out that the republicans punished Florida and other states as well. Lastly you didn't mention that the republican controlled legislature in Florida and the Republican governor were the ones who moved the primary date to one that violated DNC and RNC rules.