# Regarding the FL and MI Democratic delegates

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-the-fl-and-mi-democratic-delegates/438722>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [February 22, 2008, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-the-fl-and-mi-democratic-delegates/438722 "2008-02-22T14:58:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-the-fl-and-mi-democratic-delegates/438722/21 "2008-02-25T02:56:19Z")

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[QUOTE=Keweenaw]  
These two articles seem refer to a 28-2 vote on granting a waiver to New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina by the DNC Rules & ByLaws Committee.  
[/QUOTE]  
The “waivers” granted to Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina in November 2007 were very different from the waivers sought by Michigan and Florida.

The DNC, as far back as August 2006, granted waivers to Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina to hold pre-Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses in 2008. The DNC at that time set tentative dates for each of the four contests.

New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina ended up deviating from those tentative dates, and thus needed a second waiver in November 2007. Florida and Michigan committed the more egregious violation of moving from the post-Super Tuesday period to the forbidden pre-Super Tuesday period. In fact, it was Florida’s action which precipitated the Iowa and New Hampshire rescheduling, since NH state law specifies that its primary be held a week earlier than any other state primary. South Carolina also moved its primary, from 1/29 to 1/26 in order to hold it on a weekend.

So Iowa, NH, and SC were granted technical waivers for movement within the pre-Super Tuesday period, but MI and FL were denied substantive waivers for barging into the pre-Super Tuesday period uninvited.

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**Author:** ![Keweenaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Keweenaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keweenaw)\
**Post date:** [February 25, 2008, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/regarding-the-fl-and-mi-democratic-delegates/438722/22 "2008-02-25T04:10:08Z")

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Here is a [Washington Post article](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801511_pf.html) that describes why Michigan moved it’s primary.

> [@](#):
>
> After the 2004 election, the DNC agreed to review the schedule with an eye toward tempering the importance of Iowa and New Hampshire. It added Nevada and South Carolina, states with more Hispanic and black voters, respectively, as the second and fourth stops on the primary tour.
> 
> Michigan’s political leaders were disappointed not to be added to the first four but went along, expecting that other states would abide by the new calendar. When the dates started to shift – and particularly when Gardner said New Hampshire would move up – they considered the deal broken.
> 
> Levin and Debbie Dingell took their case to DNC Chairman Howard Dean last month, complaining that he was standing by silently as New Hampshire broke its promise. They asked Dean to urge Democrats not to campaign there.
> 
> “Someone,” the two wrote, “has to take on New Hampshire’s transparent effort to violate the DNC rules and to maintain its privileged position.”

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