FLORIDA BALLOTS HANGING CHAD AGAIN

A special election by June 10 to make Florida delegates count in the Democratic nomination "would be a train wreck for Florida," said Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent, also president of the statewide elections supervisors association.

As Sen. Hillary Clinton took big wins this week over Sen. Barack Obama in Texas and Ohio, talk intensified about letting Florida and Michigan back into the race for the nomination. They were penalized with losing delegates for moving their primaries to Jan. 29.
The difficulties of a "do-over" lie not only with equipment but in finding and training poll workers, making sure precincts are available, deciding who would pay for it and whether the state should establish a precedent by allowing third parties to underwrite elections.

At least four counties, including Palm Beach, may not have proper equipment to hold an election by June 10, the last date allowed by the Democratic National Committee. State law prohibits supervisors from holding a mail-only election if candidates' names are on the ballots. Lawmakers would have to include that change in a bill creating the special election.

Five Florida counties - Collier, Hardee, Hendry, Hillsborough and Monroe - require clearance from the U.S. Department of Justice before being able to hold elections because of past voting irregularities.

Then there's the bottom line. Florida Supervisors question who will pay for the election, estimated to cost up to $18 million, given the state's economic dire straits. Under the state constitution, lawmakers could order the election and force counties to pay for it.

THE ANSWER?

The DNC must count the original (and near record) primary voting results and let them stand. No, the candidates did not campaign there, but little "change" (if you will excuse the expression) would have occured if they did cover the state in stump speeches. $18 million to hold a primary is bad enough. $18 million to re-vote, and ultimately cancel out a certified primary election is an outrage in a state facing severe economic problems in the short term.

The delegate counts will not change much despite Clinton's convincing win there (not a Republican style "winner take all" state). The ultimate decision will mathematically go to the super-delegates, and a brokered convention, however repugnant is in the offing. Count their votes as is. You cannot hold the Democratic voters of Florida hostage over the voting (and whims) of the Republican majority state officials. Haven't the Floridian voters had enough?

Count the votes, seat the delegates and leave the "do-over" negotiations for Michigan, where the Democratic candidates (Obama, et al.) ignorantly took their names off the ballot; all that is, except for one Hillary Rodham Clinton, who carried the state in much the same results she took Ohio, Michigan's voting identical twin.