What if Democratic voters turned out for a presidential primary in Florida and their vote didn't count?No, this isn't a Katherine Harris joke.
It's an option national Democratic leaders are seriously considering as they grapple with Florida's newly scheduled 2008 presidential primary date, which could upend the national primary process and produce yet another weird Florida election. Consider the scenario:
On Jan. 29, Florida Republicans and Democrats head to the polls to pick presidential nominees. Republican votes count, just as you would expect, but the results for Democrats would be nonbinding. No delegates would be awarded based upon the results and instead party activists and insiders would decide on some later date how to divvy up the state's more than 200 delegates to the Democratic national convention.
It's not so far-fetched.
"I think it's much higher than 50-50 that we will make Jan. 29 a nonbinding" election, said Jon Ausman, a veteran Democratic organizer in Tallahassee and member of the Democratic National Committee.
Florida Democratic chairwoman Karen Thurman and state executive director Leonard Joseph have been meeting with national party leaders this week to reach an agreement on how to deal with the Democratic National Committee penalties for violating the national party's scheduling rules.
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