Half a Vote is Better Than None, so I just became a Half-Assed Republican
As a Florida Democrat, my vote in the primary election on January 29, 2008, would not count. This is the official word from the national Democratic Party. All Florida Democrats are effectively disenfranchised in the 2008 Presidential primary, and that’s that. The Republican Party has stripped Florida of half its convention delegates, which apparently means that in Republican-land we Florida people are only half as worthy as voters elsewhere. But half a vote is still better than none, right?
After the January 29 primary I’ll go back to being an “unaffiliated” voter, a group whose number is increasing in Florida faster than either Republicans or Democrats (which might tell you something about the growing contempt here for the leaders of both major political parties).
If you are a Florida resident who wants to make the same (hopefully temporary) switch to the Republican Party that I made this morning, you need to do it before January 1 (effectively, by the end of this week) for your vote to count in the primary. I’m not saying you *should* do this, just that if you *want* to do it, you don’t have a lot of time to waste. 
December 26th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
Except, of course, that this isn’t actually what the DNC has said and it isn’t true. The DNC doesn’t have the power to choose which delegates will be seated at the convention, only the presidential nominee has that power. Everyone has said that the eventual nominee, regardless of who it is, will seat Florida’s delegates. You are buying in to the propaganda of the Republican party if you think people’s votes won’t count if they vote in the Democratic primary. Republicans don’t want Democrats to show up and vote on January 29th so they can get the property tax amendment passed. Don’t fall for it.
December 26th, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Kenneth, this is question-begging. You are simply wrong, and you make the case WHY you are wrong: the delegates will be seated BY THE NOMINEE. But that only happens once there IS a nominee. If there is no nominee before the convention — and this happens WITHOUT including Florida’s primary votes — then the nominee will be chosen at convention, and Florida won’t get to participate.
It is absolutely true that a Democratic vote in Florida’s primary will not count.
However, the problem I have with what Robin said is that it is FLORIDA’S FAULT. Florida knew well in advance that if they moved the primary earlier, that they would risk losing their delegates in both parties. They did it anyway, apparently thinking the parties wouldn’t follow their own rules. Florida was wrong, and now Florida has the gall to cry foul. Flummery: it is all their fault that they are in this mess. If anyone disenfranchised Floridians, it was Florida.