Is It Legal?
The Associated Press says Florida mail-in primary plan gains traction, which apparently means that politicians, pundits, and VSP are talking about it on TV. What isn’t clear is if this is legal in Florida and Michigan.
In general a private group can make and enforce whatever rules it wants to as long as it stays out of the public. Once it becomes part of the public arena, or it starts applying for privileges from the government, it must obey applicable law.
There are major laws, both state and federal, when it comes to elections, and I don’t hear any legal analysis of what is being proposed. I do know that anyone can challenge a Democrat being on the ballot for President in Florida if the Florida delegates aren’t seated at the nominating convention, I’m not saying the challenge would win, but the basis for the challenge exists in the law. What hasn’t been tested or discussed is the status of the individual nominated if the Florida delegation at the convention is not selected based on the state’s primary election. Running around gathering cash for a mail-in primary is going to be a major waste of time if the vote isn’t “legal”.
Maybe someone, like the Florida Democratic party, should look into this before things go any further.
8 comments
anything the clintons touch gets messy — and this win at all costs philosophy is going to allow mccain a waltz….
Maybe someone, like the Florida Democratic party, should look into this before things go any further.
while they’re at it, they maybe might ought to perhaps consider looking around in the rule books to see if there might be any other little surprises waiting for them. also, it wouldn’t hurt for the national party to spend a little time brushing up on some of the ins and outs that led to this little kerfuffle.
the [we-didn’t-really-mean-it] 50-state strategy notwithstanding, the national party wouldn’t have to dig into the intricacies of all 50 states. there were only 5 that rebelled [although only two got beaten with switches for their misbehavior]; that’s enough to signal that the process is broken.
the whole election process could use a good overhaul, but failing that, the democrats could really shine here if they started making serious inroads on cleaning up their primaries. i know they’ve been too busy stopping the war in iraq, and impeaching this mal-administration, and implementing universal healthcare, and restoring our civil liberties, and fixing the broken _________, to take on election reform too, but….
DC, the Clintons have nothing to do with this. This mess was created by the Republican Party of Florida acting through the Republican-controlled Florida house, senate, and executive. This was about getting a Florida constitutional amendment passed, and the Democratic National Committee help them out to protect an “ancient tradition” of 30 years. The candidates can’t affect this, all they can do is express an opinion. I will say that Mr. Obama needs to stop telling Floridians that their votes don’t count – that’s not a positive message no matter what he thinks he means by it, and it carries a lot of baggage in Florida. If you know anyone in his campaign, tell them to cut the crap or he’s going to be starring in a 30 second commercial with Katherine Harris put up by a 527.
Hipparchia, we need a single, uniform process and some major restrictions on campaigning. There needs to be an end to all of this crap in the Presidential process by having a single, national primary run by the DNC that contains the names of all of the candidates. Save the big bucks for the general election. If states want to hold primaries or caucuses to affirm the selection, swell, go for it, but the current non-system is a horrendous waste of time and money.
If they run it as a caucus, which is what I see as the proposal, it’s a private group running a caucus. No state money = no state election = no state involvement. You can have whatever rules you want for a caucus, no matter how silly or stupid, and the state can’t tell you anything as long as you’re not engaged in fraud or money laundering or some other illegal conduct of that sort. Something about the 1st Amendment and “freedom of association” and stuff like that.
yeah, that beauty contest quote of his really won my heart. not.
not to mention that we elected these people and pay them a salary to be enacting laws, or blocking them, as the case may be, not to gallivant around the country holding barbecues and photo ops and filling war chests.
that was one of the things i liked about john edwards — whatever job he gave up doing to run for president, it wasn’t the job of running the country he skipped out on.
major restrictions on campaigning, that would get my vote. i’d prefer a single national primary, but might be willing to compromise on something resembling a few rotating regional primaries. might.
oops, i seem to be tag-impaired today.
The problem is that you have to comply with state law to get on the ballot, Badtux. The party can do whatever it wants, but that doesn’t mean the state will recognize the result. That’s the point I’m making – the Florida Democratic party needs to find out what it’s going to take to get the nominee’s name on the ballot if the January primary delegates aren’t seated.
Of course, the Florida legislature always has the option of meeting on election day and selecting a slate of electors. We found out in 2000 that that is legal in Florida, as long as they do it before the election has finished.
There will always be states that want to caucus, and states that want open primaries, which is why I want one single national mail-in primary, so the choice is a choice of the party as a whole.
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