Help!! I don't understand. Why was Hilary the only one to put her name on the ballot? What does a vote of "uncommitted" mean?? Also why are there no democratic delegates?? Does this state just not matter to the democrats?? Someone please explain it to me! Thanks!!
In Michigan, the chairman of each party submits to the Secretary of State a list of persons that they consider to be candidates based on press reports, campaign activities, etc. Any of the named persons then could file to have their name removed, and other persons could petition to have their name added to the ballot. Michigan law requires that there be an uncommitted option on the ballot.
Because of the threatened sanctions against Michigan and candidates who campaign there, Obama and Edwards had their names removed. Clinton simply "ignored" the whole process (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). Florida has a similar process, but in Florida, candidates have to declare that they aren't running for President. The Michigan legislature considered changing its law to be similar to Florida's, but failed to get enough support from Democrats to change the law.
Political parties are private organizations whose role in the election process is recognized by state law. For the general election in November, the Michigan Democratic Party will designate its presidential and vice-presidential candidates whose name will appear on the ballot. It will also designate the presidential electors candidates who will cast the electoral votes if the presidential and vice-presidential candidates win the election in Michigan.
Presumably, the Michigan Democratic Party will designate the presidential and vice presidential candidates chosen by the national convention in August, and will choose loyal presidential electors who will actually vote for those candidates.
The national Democratic Party is also a private organization with which the Michigan (and other State) Democratic parties are affiliated. It runs the national convention, and determines the number of delegates which each state party is entitled. It also approves or disapproves the delegate selection plan of each state party. Ultimately, the national convention will decide whether to permit delegates selected by each state party.
The Michigan Democratic Party submitted a delegate selection plan which said that its delegates would be elected on the basis of a January 15th primary. The national Democratic party rejected the proposed plan because the primary would be held before February 5th (which were reserved for Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida, and Michigan). Since the Michigan Democrats did not submit an acceptable plan, the national party denied them any delegates to the national convention, and won't even allocate the Michigan delegates hotel space in Denver. They also took away automatic spots for elected officials, so Senators Stabenow and Levin, Governor Granholm, Congressman Conyers and Dingell, etc. won't be seated. The national party has also threatened to take away any delegates from candidates who actively campaigned or fund-raised in Michigan.
Michigan Democrats will continue the process of selecting delegates. The actual delegates will be chosen in March (congressional district level) and May (state level). Congressional District delegates will be chosen at conventions in proportion to the vote in the primary. For example, CD 1 (UP and northern LP) has 5 delegates, 3 Clinton delegates and 2 uncommitted. Any Democrat may submit their name to be a Clinton delegate to the national convention or an "uncommitted" delegate. The candidates have the option to limit the delegate candidates to 3 times the number of delegates to be elected (so in CD 1, Clinton could limit the delegate candidates to 9 (3 x 3). I don't know whether Clinton will actually be allowed to actively restrict the delegate lists or not. In March, Clinton-supporting delegates to the CD 1 convention will caucus to choose their 3 delegates to the national convention. At the same time, other delegates to the CD 1 convention will choose the 2 other delegates. Obama supporters can try to elect Obama-supporting delegates and Edwards supporters to elect Edwards-supporting delegates. Clinton supporters could join the uncommitted caucus and try to elect addtional Clinton-supporting delegates. Effectively, by voting "uncommitted", primary voters are saying that they are deferring to the judgement of the CD conventions.
There is a similar process for selecting statewide-delegates, except that rather than being elected by CD conventions, the national delegates will be chosen by the Michigan state central committee.
Because she won the majority of the delegates, Clinton operatives will urge that the Michigan delegates be seated at the national convention, giving a rationale that they represent the will of Democrat voters, and argue that Democrats should be fighting Repbulicans and not each other. However, if she does spectacularly bad in Florida, they will argue for observing the sanctity of the national party rules that were agreed to in advance. If the Michigan and Florida delegations won't have an effect on the result, they will be seated at the convention. If they will, there could be an ugly floor fight over seating the delegates.
The Republicans were in a somewhat parallel situation. But they decided that states that hold too-early delegate selection, would only get 1/2 the number of delegates. They also applied the same sanction to New Hampshire. The Democrats decided that it was OK for New Hampshire to hold its primary too early because it would make them look like idiots if they didn't, and the New Hampshire Democratic party had no choice since the primary date was set by the state.
