WASHINGTON — Now that Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic nomination for president, he wants convention delegates from Florida and Michigan to have full voting rights at the party’s national convention.
Obama sent a letter Sunday to the party’s credentials committee, asking members to reinstate the delegates’ voting rights.
The delegates were originally stripped because the two states violated party rules by holding primaries before Feb. 5. The delegates from each state were given half-votes in May.
Obama’s former Democratic rival, Hillary Rodham Clinton, had won both primaries, though Obama’s name was not on the Michigan ballot and neither candidate campaigned in Florida.
“I believe party unity calls for the delegates from Florida and Michigan to be able to participate fully alongside the delegates from the other states and territories,” Obama said in the letter.
