Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Five Percent Of Indiana Delegates No Show For Roll Call Vote

One would think a delegate to a national nominating convention of either party could at least show up for the roll call vote for nominating the presidential candidate. Apparently four of Indiana's 85 delegates to the Democratic National Convention had more important things to do than show up for the roll call vote according to WISH-TV's Jim Shella. That's 5% of the delegation! And one of the 85 delegates who cast a vote doesn't even live in Indiana. That was former Indiana Democratic Chairman Joe Andrew, a Maryland resident. He was making up for the fact that he failed to cast a vote in the Democratic primaries this year.

6 comments:

Vox Populi said...

The delegates may have voted for candidates other than Clinton or Obama, who were the only two nominated. The delegates are free to write down whatever name they want. Some may have written "Evan Bayh" or "Bill Clinton." They would not be included in the tally.

Gary R. Welsh said...

The delegates elected at the state convention were all pledged to either Clinton or Obama. Only the super delegates were independent agents and none of them did as you suggest.

Vox Populi said...

Gary, even pledged delegates are not bound to vote for the candidate they are "pledged" to vote for. It's possible that some of the Clinton delegates weren't ready to vote for Barack and wrote a different name in.

Shella is saying that four skipped out on the vote. Who were the four? Why isn't Shella doing the diligence NBC did when they were explaining why some states (like Arizona) had fewer votes than they had delegates. Chuck Todd explained that it was because of delegates voting for other candidates that weren't nominated and wouldn't be counted.

It's possible they were "no shows" as you write, but at the same time it's possible that Chuck Todd's explanation is the accurate one.

Speaking of no-shows, have you seen the list of Republican office holders who won't be going to the convention? At least 6 Republican US Senators are avoiding the Twin Cities like the plague. Even Senator Norm Coleman said if the convention wasn't in his city, he wouldn't go.

M Theory said...

Imagine what we could do for our country if all the angry, principled, used, abused, and talented D's and R's came over to the nice clean Libertarian pond.
.
There are so many, that like a battered spouse, think they can change their abuser. Instead of leaving and starting a new life without the abuse, they keep hanging on to an irrational belief that they can change him.

Bart Lies said...

Maybe they were delayed as a result of trying to eat dinner with nothing but their fingers and a spoon.

artfuggins said...

Again wrong and wrong......Joe Andrew by virtue of being a past
DNC chairman is entitled to a vote. It doesn't matter which state he choose to cast it. He made the decision to cast it with his home state. If a delegate chose to vote for someone other than Obama or Clinton then their votes did not count as the nomination petitions had only been filed for those candidates. The missing 4 delegates might have voted for someone other than Clinton or Obama.