WASHINGTON — A prominent civil-rights leader has told the Democratic National Committee that refusing to seat delegates from Florida and Michigan would disenfranchise both states’ minority communities.
In a Feb. 8 letter to DNC chairman Howard Dean, NAACP chairman Julian Bond expressed “great concern at the prospect that millions of voters in Michigan and Florida could ultimately have their votes completely discounted.”
Refusing to seat the states’ delegations could remind voters of the “sordid history of racially discriminatory primaries,” he said.
The DNC penalized Michigan and Florida for moving their primaries to earlier dates in violation of party rules. Both states were stripped of their delegates. Florida lost all 210 delegates, including its superdelegates; Michigan lost 156.
