Hillary has consistently stood up for the voters of Michigan and Florida.  She, like you, has insisted that the voice of all Americans be heard.  Today, the DNC's Rules and Bylaws Committee announced their decision on seating Florida and Michigan's delegations. In recent days, almost 350,000 of Hillary's supporters wrote in to the committee to make clear what an important principle it is for our party to count every vote.
Our campaign has released an official statement about the results of the Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting and I'd like to share it with blogHillary readers. I know how passionate Hillary's supporters are about the importance of counting every vote cast in Florida and Michigan and I hope that they continue to express their feelings with the respect and thoughtfulness they've shown during the course of this campaign.

 

Harold Ickes and Tina Flournoy made the following statement:
Today’s results are a victory for the people of Florida who will have a voice in selecting our Party’s nominee and will see its delegates seated at our party’s convention.  The decision by the Rules and Bylaws Committee honors the votes that were cast by the people of Florida and allocates the delegates accordingly. __We strongly object to the Committee’s decision to undercut its own rules in seating Michigan’s delegates without reflecting the votes of the people of Michigan. __The Committee awarded to Senator Obama not only the delegates won by Uncommitted, but four of the delegates won by Senator Clinton. This decision violates the bedrock principles of our democracy and our Party. _We reserve the right to challenge this decision before the Credentials Committee and appeal for a fair allocation of Michigan’s delegates that actually reflect the votes as they were cast.
 

 

 

 

 

In Letter

FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN





       


    Thank you for taking the time to meet with us in Providence, RI last Thursday. As you know, the Massachusetts Women Democratic Leaders involved in the “Every Vote Counts” effort includes over 60 men and women, elected officials and leaders in and major donors to the Democratic Party.  Eighteen members of the group participated in the meeting, which was substantive and productive.  Please consider this letter a follow-up on the essential elements of the discussion and outcomes.

As we conveyed in our previous letter to you and in our discussions, there is deep concern regarding the delay in seating the Michigan and Florida delegations to the national convention, especially in terms of its impact on the convention nomination and the general election.  More to the point, we are concerned that waiting until May 31st to resolve this issue will in fact be too late to have any perceptible effect, and will send the wrong message:  on the one hand, delegates are feeling increasing pressure to signal their preferences immediately (if not sooner), but on the other hand the meeting of the Rules and Bylaws Committee will not occur until the 11th hour.  In order to have any impact on the process and to effectively give credence to the voters in Michigan and Florida, we believe the Rules and Bylaws Committee should act before May 31st, if at all possible.

We are equally concerned that a persistent lack of clarity regarding the status of the state-certified votes in those states has resulted in widespread misperception - in the media, the public and among super-delegates - about the accurate vote totals for both candidates.  As we discussed, the DNC’s authority extends to the apportionment of delegates only, and does not affect the validity of those votes.  Once they were certified by the Florida and Michigan Secretaries of State, the votes were valid and countable toward the respective candidates’ popular vote totals. 

We believe that the confusion around this issue and the lack of a concrete statement from the DNC has contributed greatly to the frustration of the voters in Florida and Michigan and the damaging perception that their votes are being ignored.  It was gratifying to learn that you agree that the DNC’s actions do not in any way affect the validity of these votes, and that you are amenable to making a public statement that clarifies this issue. 

    We suggest the following, which speaks, not to the benefit of either candidate, but directly to those whose votes are at issue: 
"The voters of Florida and Michigan, like the voters of every Democratic primary and caucus, deserve to have their voices heard. They went to the polls and cast their votes in good faith.  The votes have been certified by the Secretaries of State of both Florida and Michigan, and their validity is not affected by the actions of the DNC.    Seating the delegates for Florida and Michigan, however, will be decided by the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, but that decision does not affect the votes cast in those states."
    We were also gratified to hear your concern regarding the process by which state party caucuses are conducted and then utilized as a basis for delegate selection, given what we perceive to be significant irregularities surrounding some of the caucuses, as well as the degree to which delegates selected by means of caucuses (as opposed to primaries) are representative of both the diversity and numbers of the populations which they serve.  We also discussed the concerns of coalescing a broad range of voters -- whose diversity encompasses a host of issues including gender, race and religious affiliation-- behind whoever the eventual Democratic nominee may be.
    Finally this primary season has raised the issues of race and gender to unprecedented prominence.  We are extremely proud that the Democratic Party has addressed so forthrightly the issue of racial bias; this profoundly important dialogue, however, has not been matched by similarly substantive dialogue about gender bias, which has been prevalent, virulent, and not confined to the media. In some instances this emphasis is propelling the nation toward a more enlightened view about both race and gender bias. But too often, “the story of women’s suffering has remained untold,” as you so eloquently put it, permitting commentary and remarks that have stunned women by their negativity.
Just as we expect that our leaders will take an immediate and strong stance against racism, we expect that those same leaders will take an immediate and strong stance against sexism. We believe that women Democrats, and even women who vote independent and some women Republicans, will support the party that finds a way to initiate a national dialogue about the issue of gender as we head into the general election. Likewise, we are deeply concerned about the impact that the failure to promptly address this issue is having and will continue to have on the party strength and unity. We are open to discussing any ideas about the role that the DNC could play in this important endeavor, as the members of our group have spent decades helping women achieve more opportunities at every level of society.
    As we stressed in the meeting, we are Democrats, whose longstanding commitment to the Democratic Party and its principles is beyond question.  We are strongly committed to electing a Democrat to the White House in November and look forward to working with you to successfully meet whatever challenges we face in the coming months and beyond. 
                           
With regards,

Massachusetts Democratic Women Leaders
“Every Vote Counts”
www.countthevotes.net,

 

  

 

 Hillary Clinton Urges

Barak Obama to Count Every Vote!

 May 8, 2008
 

Dear Senator Obama,

 

            This has been an historic and exciting campaign. Millions of new voters have been brought into the process and their enthusiasm for the Democratic Party and the principles for which you and I have fought and continue to fight is unprecedented.

            One of the foremost principles of our party is that citizens be allowed to vote and that those votes be counted. That principle is not currently being applied to the nearly 2.5 million people who voted in primaries in Florida and Michigan. Whoever emerges as the Democratic nominee will be hamstrung in the general election if a fair and quick resolution is not reached that ensures that the voices of these voters are heard.  Our commitment now to this goal could be the difference between winning and losing in November.

            I have consistently said that the votes cast in Florida and Michigan in January should be counted. We cannot ignore the fact that the people in those states took the time to be a part of this process and to make their preferences known.  When efforts were untaken by leaders in those states to hold revotes to ensure that they had a voice in selecting our nominee, I supported those efforts. In Michigan, I supported a legislative effort to hold a revote that the Democratic National Committee said was in complete compliance with the party's rules. You did not support those efforts and your supporters in Michigan publically opposed them. In Florida a number of revote options were proposed. I am not aware of any that you supported. In 2000, the Republicans won an election by successfully opposing a fair counting of votes in Florida. As Democrats, we must reject any proposals that would do the same.

            Your commitment to the voters of these states must be clearly stated and your support for a fair and quick resolution must be clearly demonstrated.

            I am asking you to join me in working with representatives from Florida and Michigan and the Democratic National Committee to arrive at a solution that honors the votes of the millions of people who went to the polls in Florida and Michigan. It is not enough to simply seat their representatives at the convention in Denver. The people of these great states, like the people who have voted and are to vote in other states, must have a voice in selecting our party's nominee.

 

                                                                                    Sincerely,

                                                                                    Hillary Rodham Clinton

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BOSTON – A group of Democratic women politicians and other Democratic women leaders today launched their Every Vote Counts Project, a campaign to have Massachusetts super-delegates pledge their support – no matter whom they back – for a fair and inclusive process that counts all the votes cast in statewide primaries, including those of Florida and Michigan.

They will ask all Massachusetts’ super-delegates to declare their public support for holding a full-fledged primary in Michigan and either the counting of the Florida primary results or holding a full-fledged primary in that state.

“Massachusetts Democrats have long fought for inclusion, fairness and the democratic process,” said Senate President Therese Murray.  “Now is no time to back off those principles.  We are counting on the super-delegates of our state – a state with a proud tradition of caring about fairness and equal representation -- to speak up for voter participation in this historic primary season,” she said.

“This is not just a matter of basic democratic principles,” said Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral. “It is also about practical politics. We all remember Florida in 2000.  The Democratic Party would not be wise to leave out the voters from these two important and populous states.” 

Senate President Murray added: “How can we afford to disenfranchise millions of voters in Florida who are engaged, who came out to vote, and who want to be part of the process?”

The group said that despite the fact that super-delegates may be backing different candidates, they hope and expect that, as Democrats, they will be united in their determination to make sure the process is fair to both of the candidates and to the millions of voters who have cast their votes in this primary season.

These women leaders said they will begin immediately to get the Every Vote Counts Pledge signed by all of the 23 Massachusetts super-delegates.

PRESS COVERAGE:

2.  New England Cable News Coverage of Press Conference:
 

By Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist  |  April 6, 2008