Will Florida's Votes Be Counted in This Early Primary Election?

Voting in Florida has become a joke in recent years, the hanging Chads, the 5000 absentee votes that were never counted, which were mostly for Al Gore, and would have changed the outcome of the 2000 election....well, my vote was one of those and I've never forgotten that little fact..so in today's delegate-challenged presidential primary, I've been very concerned with this issue of our votes not being counted again when the delegates meet at the Democratic National Convention

There seems to be two parts to the story ... why? Because the Florida Legislature decided they wanted to have their election earlier than the rest of the country on Super Tuesday February 5th...they felt an early vote would be important if there was a strong showing and Florida would be a front runner rather than be part of the pack...Why did they want this? Well, it seems they, the legislators, felt that other states jump on the band wagon when the earlier elections results are in from New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina and they wanted to be part of that band wagon...so an election was held last spring for this January 29th election to get voters more involved with the whole process. From articles I 've read and people I've talked to I really do not think the voters were aware than come this election their votes would not be part of the Democratic process during the national convention...

This was not to the liking of the National committees of both parties since they had already created the calendar for the elections to be held on Super Tuesday when 22 states are going to have their primaries....why should Florida and Michigan be any different?

So the Democratic National Committee warned the Florida Legislature that if it held an early election in January they would not allow the delegates to take part in the convention... the Republican party warned they would take away half the delegates... but Florida decided to go ahead anyway with the early election as did the state of Michigan.

But this is being disputed and it is said that the Florida vote counts even more than ever since whoever wins in this state, actually in both states, will have the momentum in the race on super Tuesday....will the other states look to us to see how we voted?

I sort of doubt it but you never know, I am thoughly and completely aghast that the possibility exists that my vote won't count nor will the million of other votes cast today. How can the powers that be, in both parties, have that much to say in our most important election of the this century!

I am happy to say that the Clinton group has started a new campaign to force the Democratic party to recognize and honor our votes held today in the Primary...They are pushing to set in motion a new bill that will allow the states 185 delegates be counted on that fateful day

Hillary Clinton's chief strategist had announced they would push the Democratic National Committee to amend that ruling...but, for some reason, the Obama compaign group says they will oppose the change...I just don't understand that. Unless of course they knew this election would go to Clinton

Could Florida become critical in the voting count like it did in the 2000 presidential election? That would be quite a coincidence if once again our votes weren't counted, this time for those voted to represent us as our delegates.. Clinton or Obama needs the majority of the 4,049 delegates to the convention and these 185 Florida delegates could really become all important in the history of our state and the country...

I am totally opposed to this situation and hope that Clinton and the other candidates can persuade the committee to change this unfair ruling...

The supreme court ruled over 20 years ago that the parties have the right to decide how to run their own elections and this new ruling could be overturned ...I think that would be the fairest turn of events and the most benefit to both states, if only to stop the kind of new stories that will come out of all this, which I'm sure will be a lot of dirty mud slinging..we don't need that now...what we need is a new President that can help our country get out of the mess it is in now...combined forces are certainly better than divided and we need a show of strength in our political parties with solidarity and respect that each person's vote will count .

A quote from Michael McDonald, a specialist on elections, said: "This is largely a matter for the political parties to decide since they get to set their own rules for how they select their presidential nominee". "It may be that at the Democratic convention, if a nominee emerges with a majority of delegates, that the nominee would change the rules to seat the delegates from Michigan and Florida. Clinton as the nominee most likely to take this action."

So now it's a wait and see situation...I know what I would like to see...