Can we please stop this particular speculation. Below the fold is a copy of a letter from a state committee woman answering State Representative Dan Gelber's suggestion for a do-over by mail.
From the Miami Herald:
My dear friend Dan Gelber,
I am responding as a State Committeewoman and the Chair of the FDP Campaign Committee. A Vote by mail campaign in Florida would cost about $4 -6 million to run, and there is no one on this green earth who would spend those dollars, when we had a valid, legal and record breaking voter turnout in the January 29th primary. We would never disenfranchise those 1.7 million voters who listened to the FDP, and numerous other organizations urging them to go out to vote for their preferred candidate on January 29th.
But even more important, there are no do-overs in elections, and certainly will never be one on the FL primary for the following reasons:
- The FDP spent months assuring the Democrats in Florida that the January 29th primary was an important election that everyone needed to participate in. There were numerous e-mail efforts to get the word out, major media interviews of Karen Thurman, and discussions at the State Democratic convention in October to encourage all democrats to go vote.
- There was significant grassroots campaigning going on all over the state on behalf of all the major Presidential candidates. In addition, there was ample opportunity to learn about every candidate by watching televised debates, reading newspapers and participating in online campaign activities. In fact one candidate even violated the pledge by airing national commercials throughout Florida for a week before the primary.
- We assured the democrats that the delegates would eventually be seated and the process of selecting delegates is now in place.It is up to the DNC Rules committee and Howard Dean to return 1/2 of our delegates to us immediately, at a minimum.
- The 1.7 million people who voted in record setting turnout for Florida Democrats attests to the understanding that their voices were being heard. We pushed a count every vote campaign and that campaign continues, only now it includes the important message, count every state.
If the DNC really wants to take back the presidency in November, then Howard Dean will figure out a way to reinstate Florida's delegates. His Rules committee violated its own rules by imposing a sanction beyond the allowable sanctions, when they attempted to take away 100 % of our delegates, when their own rules only provide for a sanction of half the delegates, and he has done nothing to rectify the violation of their own rules.
The Point is Every vote counts, and Every State counts, Florida must count
Cindy Lerner
State Committeewoman, Miami-Dade County
Chair, FDP Campaign Committee
I'm sure everyone is going to say that this opens up a lot of other speculations.
Not really. Kos has already gone over this. After the super delegates do their job and coalesce around the best choice for the party thereby making one candidate the clear leader, the delegates will be re-instated.
If Clinton is the unlikely winner, the delegates can be re-instated as is. If Obama is the winner the delegates will be split between the two and reinstated so that they have no effect on the outcome.