Maine Democrats approve changes to superdelegate voting rules

[jpak]

http://bangordailynews.com/story/what-maine-democrats-are-thinking/

An amendment to the Democratic Convention rules that would force superdelegates to cast their presidential preference votes proportionally to the results of Maine’s caucuses was approved Saturday morning at the Democratic State Convention.

In Maine, where nearly 64 percent of Democrats supported Bernie Sanders in the March caucuses, three of the five superdelegates have indicated support for Hillary Clinton. One supports Bernie Sanders and the fifth has not indicated a preference.

The amendment, which was proposed by Portland Rep. Diane Russell, who is a Bernie Sanders supporter, will take effect in 2020 and also includes clauses to “strongly encourage” Maine’s five superdelegates to vote accordingly this year.

There were several attempts to make the rule take effect this year, but they were called out of order because the deadline for amendments to the party’s rules was two weeks ago, according to Maine Democratic Party Chairman Phil Bartlett.

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[stopbush]

1. BFD.

[jpak]

2. It is...

[CrowCityDem]

3. So they wanted to change the rules in the middle of the game. Isn't that 'rigging' the system?

[jpak]

4. Nope - just righting a wrong. No fix 4 U

[CrowCityDem]

5. So we're free to ban caucuses and disregard their results? Awesome!

[jpak]

7. Feel the Bern :)

[Igel]

6. Nobody thinks rigging the system is anything more than making the rules fair and just.

Mostly because "fair and just" are such squishy, malleable terms. Often they just mean "what helps me".

When a student is allowed to use his/her notes on a test, that student thinks it's fair. Few will say it's unfair even if they're the only student allowed to use it. Meanwhile, a lot of students will look at the student allowed to use notes on a test, even if that student is developmentally impaired and this is documented by a horde of doctors and psychologists and the use of notes is mandated by a committee in charge of such things.


In this case, "fair" and "just" are what's decided ahead of time, because anybody who sits at the table to a game knows the rules and options. Rigging implies duplicity, not the transparency that is the rules for registration and primaries and the convention. I read about superdelegates and how they were assigned for this convention a long time ago. They were announced. Many were summaried in the press. Links to the website were given, including on DU. (I know because I tracked down the website and posted the link. By "tracking down" I mean "took 5 seconds to Google, 5 seconds to search and find, and 20 seconds to read and understand. If a presidential candidate can't take 30 seconds or hire somebody to do this for him, he shouldn't run. He should have a guardian appointed. Then again, I posted this a while back, and not everybody sees every post to every thread. But 30 seconds is the upper bound on the time investment to knowing the DNC rules for the convention as far as 'superdelegates' is concerned.)