Regardless of who you support I think we all desire that all votes count. Especially after the 2000 election.

MARC RUBIN has written AN OPEN LETTER TO HOWARD DEAN, SUPER DELEGATES, THE NEWS MEDIA AND THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE

I think it sums up my thoughts on the election perfectly and he has allowed me to include it here, Gerard.

Florida and Michigan are part of this country and they are part of the process by which the Democratic Party is going to choose its nominee for President of the United States. One way or the other.

To disenfranchise 2.3 million voters in two states and affect the choice of the nominee of the Democratic Party for President as well as the affairs of the nation for the next four years over what amounts to nothing more than a parking violation is using a wrecking ball to swat a fly. And the repercussions of this wrecking ball is that its momentum can swing back the other way and impact the party and its chances in November in ways that will be disastrous.

All the delegates must be seated. All the votes counted.

With regards to the scheduling conflict that was the source of the problem in the first place let the punishment fit the crime. Ban the party leaders from the convention, not the duly elected delegates representing 2.3 million voters. Levy heavy fines against the state parties. Make the party leaders hop on one leg and promise never to do it again. But you don’t disenfranchise 2.3 million voters and their delegates in a process to choose a nominee for President of the United States because of a dispute over a scheduling conflict over which the voters had no say.

The most resistance to fully counting Florida and Michigan has come from Senator Obama and his supporters. Their argument is that those states broke "the rules" when they moved their primaries up and therefore should not count. And what rules were those? No rule that in any way invalidates or calls into question the validity or accuracy of the results of elections in which 2.3 million people participated. Saying that "the rules are the rules" is not good enough. This country was founded by people who said there were higher and more important principles at stake than King George’s rules, especially when "the rules" were unfair.

Supporters of Senator Obama on the Rules Committee has referred to both those elections as "beauty contests". And what makes them "beauty contests"? The date on which they were held? To mock and diminish more than 2 million voters who went to the polls that day to make their voices heard and in record numbers, shows a degree of arrogance, stupidity and disrespect for the democratic process that the DNC cannot rubber stamp.

Equally unacceptable is the suggestion of Obama supporters on the committee that you find a compromise that has no affect on the outcome of the nominating process. For a committee member to suggest such a compromise is nothing more than a smoke and mirrors game that would have the same result as not seating them at all. It’s an insult to anyone’s intelligence.
Senator Obama consistently opposed a re-vote as a way to remedy the situation, a remedy that is party of the Committee’s Rules and By Laws, perhaps understanding that a re-vote would not change the results and it is the results that Senator Obama opposes not any support of a rule which had nothing to do with him.

This cannot be decided by taking into consideration the wishes of one side or another. One side is going to gain and the other side is going to lose. That is what happens in elections. That is why we have elections. It can only be decided based on what is right for the millions who voted in those primaries and the democratic process.

Regardless of whom anyone supports, no Democrat can support votes not being counted. Not anytime but especially not after what happened in Florida in 2000. The Democratic Party cannot send out a candidate for President who is there only because votes weren’t counted.. It cannot send out a candidate for President who is carrying an asterisk on their back.

All the delegates must be seated and all the votes counted as per the results of two fair and full elections.

Another of Senator Obama’s suggestions and those of some of his supporters is that he and Senator Clinton split the Florida and Michigan delegates 50-50. This is unconscionable. It is a proposal to steal delegates. Those are delegates Senator Obama did not win, did not earn and were not intended for him as expressed by the people of Florida and Michigan and in landslide numbers. It is not a proposal fitting for a candidate for any office much less President of the United States.

The only fair and democratic solution is to seat all the delegates and find another more appropriate sanction against the respective party leaders responsible for moving up the primaries. That is the only issue not the results of those elections.

TO THE NEWS MEDIA: The issue of the Florida and Michigan delegates is and has always been, an internal DNC issue. The popular votes in those primaries are not. Regardless of what the DNC decides with regards to the delegates, there is not now, nor has there ever been, even a remotely rational reason not to count the results of the popular vote from both states. The popular vote is just that -- the popular vote. People went to the polls. They voted. Their votes were recorded and certified and they are a legitimate reflection of the will of the people. By not including Florida and Michigan in the popular vote totals and an auxiliary delegate count that shows the true results including both states, the media has skewed, distorted and misrepresented the true status of this nominating process. They have given the country a completely false impression of the status of the race, the true will of Democratic voters at any given time, and have created a false atmosphere surrounding this entire process.

By ignoring Florida and Michigan and their impact on this election, the media has not only slighted the people of those states, but the 17 million people who have cast votes for Senator Clinton and the democratic process itself. The news media has been nothing less than irresponsible in not including the votes from Florida and Michigan, the validity of which has never been called into question.

WITH REGARDS TO MICHIGAN: Many people, with no knowledge of the events in Michigan (and some who do know but choose to ignore them) try to point to the claim that Senator Obama wasn't on the ballot: This is a straw man and entirely untrue as it impacts the results of that election.

As reported by the Des Moines Register in October of 2007, Senator Obama chose to take his name off the ballot for political reasons after his polling showed him losing in Michigan by 20 points and to win favor with a show of solidarity with the first in the nation status of the
upcoming Iowa caucus. Senator Obama, however arranged to have his name represented by a line that read "Uncommitted" on the Michigan ballot. John Edwards joined, and every voter in Michigan who went to the polls that day knew that "uncommitted" represented both Senator Obama and John Edwards. The proof that they knew is that "uncommitted" received 40.7% of the vote, the second highest total to Senator Clinton’s 56%. There has also been the assertion that Senator Clinton was the only name on the ballot. That is also untrue. Other Democratic candidates were on the ballot that day. The only question to be resolved is how to apportion the 40.7% of the vote represented by "uncommitted" between John Edwards and Senator Obama and that is not difficult.

John Edwards received on average, 14% of the vote in the primaries in which he competed. Using that as a formula and based on the Michigan totals of 238,168 votes cast for the "uncommitted" line John Edwards would receive 89,158 votes and Senator Obama 149,010. We think this is not only fair but probably undercounts what a populist like John Edwards would have received in Michigan. We also suggest the delegates be apportioned accordingly.

When you include the Florida and Michigan delegates of which Senator Clinton netted 40 delegates in Florida and approximately 30 in Michigan,, Senator Obama's true delegate lead is now 119 with more than 200 total delegates (super and pledged) still to be chosen. In all probability when the process is over Senator Obama will have lost the popular vote to Senator Clinton and will have a delegate lead of under 100 out of over 4000, a statistically insignificant number, especially given the Democrats flawed apportionment system. Which has made the calls for Senator Clinton to leave the race from both Senator Obama’s supporters, and media proclamations that it’s over even more repugnant to the democratic process.

Super delegates, the news media and party leaders have a moral, ethical and patriotic obligation to respect the will of all the people and the news media to report facts accurately and fairly not according to their own agenda. The electoral process must be respected and so must the results it produces. Florida and Michigan delegates must all be seated and their popular votes must be counted. These votes must be included in any super delegates’ deliberations regarding the true will of the people and who is the strongest candidate in November.

Seat all the delegates. Count all the votes. To do anything less will guarantee irreparable damage to the Democratic Party not just in November but in every facet of the nation’s business for years to come.

Marc Rubin's blog can be found here: http://tominpaine.blogspot.com/