Primary Conflicts

There is an issue of fairness that I am becoming much more interested in since the 2008 election year. This has been an interesting year because the American people have become more educated about the process by which our states nominate presidential candidates by party. Along with the scrutiny of the myriad of candidates running for the White House has come a focus on this process, and I am sure for the benefit of the public.

Democrats in Florida, American citizens, have been punished by the Democratic National Committee, a private association, for the decision of their state legislature to hold the Democratic Primary election on a date that did not suit the DNC. The legality of this is questionable; a civil organization having sway over the decisions of a government body - I don't care what laws are in place. This scenario is also not fair since the Florida House of Representatives has 78 Republicans and 42 Democrats, and the Florida Senate has 26 Republicans and 14 Democrats. In essence the Republicans made the decision on the date of the primary, and the DNC has barred Democratic delegates to the Democratic National Convention.

It is ethically and constitutionally questionable for the DNC to demand that the Florida legislature direct the State Department of Florida, Division of Elections, to organize elections in any other way than Florida sees fit. It does not matter that the leaders of the DNC are members of Congress and other powerful elected officials in the country. The use of their offices to intimidate state legislatures is a conflict of interest that deserves legal attention.

Besides this point alone, the decision by the DNC is plainly unfair. You cannot punish the delegates and voters in Florida because of something their state legislature did when controlled by a Republican majority. The process by which primary dates are decided and the question of authority and the local autonomy of states is an important one as we consider the greater impact on the electoral process.

Speaking of the electoral process, it is imperative that the electoral process be preserved, yet we must make it a fair process in the sense that states and the citizens of those states are not deprived of their rights to vote and have their vote count.