Pat Dollard | Young Americans

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Democrats have abandoned plans to redo the presidential primary with a mostly mail-in vote.

Party leaders had expressed concerns about the proposal. The party plan was to run a second primary to seat the state’s delegates at the August convention.

The state party considered the idea because the Democratic National Committee is refusing to award delegates based on Florida’s Jan. 29 primary, in which Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won. The DNC stripped Florida of its delegates because party rules didn’t allow the state to vote before Feb. 5.

The Swamp:

Florida Democrats have given up on the idea of redoing their primary in order to determine how to allocate the state’s delegation to the Democratic National Convention in August.

That means the decision as to what to do with the delegates is now fully back in the court of Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and other national party officials. Florida Democrats are appealing the exclusion of the state’s delegates to the party’s Rules Committee and will carry that appeal to the convention’s credentialling committee.

It also does nothing to derail the hopes of many political reporters, that there will be a credentials fight or even a brokered convention.

Now that just leaves Michigan Democrats to try and figure out how, if at all, they can pull off a redo. As in Florida, the odds are against them because of the unwillingness of the DNC and state officials to pay for a make-up election.

Here’s the top of the Associated Press story:

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Facing strong opposition, Florida Democrats on Monday abandoned plans to hold a do-over presidential primary with a mail-in vote and threw the delegate dispute into the lap of the national party.
While the decision by Florida Democrats left the state’s 210 delegates in limbo, Democrats in Michigan moved closer to holding another contest on June 3. Legislative leaders reviewed a measure Monday that would set up a privately funded, state-administered do-over primary, The Associated Press learned.

Florida Democratic Party chairwoman Karen L. Thurman sent a letter announcing the decision.

“A party-run primary or caucus has been ruled out, and it’s simply not possible for the state to hold another election, even if the party were to pay for it,” Thurman said. “… This doesn’t mean that Democrats are giving up on Florida voters. It means that a solution will have to come from the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee, which is scheduled to meet again in April.”

Members of Florida’s congressional delegation unanimously opposed the plan, and Barack Obama expressed concern about the security of a mail-in vote organized so quickly.