I need someone to explain why, as a Florida voter, I'm being totally ignored.

For the first time since I was old enough to vote, I live in a state with a primary early enough to make a difference. (Don't get me started on that!) Yet that doesn't seem to mean anything. Rudy and Huckabee are the only candidates I can recall have made any visits to the state any time recently. Rudy is the only one with television commercials.

Not that I want to be inundated with those inane ridiculous tv ads, but it would be nice to think that someone out there wants my vote.

No telephone calls, no direct mail pieces, no pundits speculating on Florida's primary results. We might as well not exist. It is fucking maddening. Other than all the Ron Paul crap littering my town I have seen one Hillary bumper sticker.

I know we've lost a couple of electoral votes, but we're still a player. (Don't get me started on the electoral college!)

I am so sick and tired of the presidential election being roughly decided by less than 1% of adults in the United States. And we call ourselves a representative democracy. What a fucking joke.

Sorry about the profanity to those it offends. I don't often swear, so that should give you some indication of how utterly pissed off I am.

The Democratic NAtional Committee declared months ago that only Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and SOuth Carolina were permitted to hold caucuses or primaries before February. Florida and Michigan tried to jump the line, so they will have no delegates at the convention.

With the theft of the election in 2000 and probable shenanigans in the 2004 election, Florida hasn't had an election count this century. Before that the primary fields were so narrowed by the time they came to Florida, you might as well not vote; there was no choice. It seems the Democratic party doesn't need or want our vote. As passionate as I am about my candidate and understand the importance of this election, I no longer believe we live anyplace that could be a democracy.

My husband works for an international company based in another country. He's overseas one week out of every month. I just sent a skype message to him telling him that if they offer him a position outside of the US, I'm on board with it. You've summed it up. I haven't felt like my vote has meant anything this millenium.

When I lived down in Alachua County during the 2000 elections, my hay guy, a young black man, had registered to vote. When he got down to the polls, he was summarily turned away because he was on the Republican-created felon list. Never been in trouble. It was a little more subtle in Jacksonville where a friend of mine got off from work, went down to vote, and had the police prevent him from getting to his precinct. Too much traffic there was the excuse, but the reality was that it was a heavily black and Democratic neighborhood. There wasn't any traffic barring in the affluent white neighborhoods. Long lines stretched out from schools there with no problems.

I hate the fact that the Republicons have more loyalty to their party than they do to our country.

Where do you live? I'm in Quincy, FL.

Fairly on the reddish side to put it mildly

Graduated from Merritt Island High.

the can tell you everything.

Just kidding!

I don't know why. I think the whole game is ridiculous.

by the national Democratic party. Lot's of people don't like the fact that Iowa and NH are the traditional lead off states, so they tried to leapfrog them. Bunches of states got involved, and then the national party stepped in and said no more. FL and MI tried more and are on the outs with the party.

For the first time, you live in a state with a primary early enough to make a difference because Florida legislators, with the full support of the state Democratic party, decided that Florida was more important than the other states with primaries too late to make a difference.

If Florida had the primary vote when they were supposed to -- based on the rules that the state party agreed to -- the vote would be too late to make a difference anyway. Now, at least your vote has some media value.

He says the state will get so much attention you won't believe it.

never again. I'll just tell him I'm doing a 2008.

I am assuming that the media will talk about the vote and dissect who won and why, which might give a boost to the winner. I don't know that for a fact, though, of course. I'm just assuming.

I'm sorry that I'm not sympathetic. But I think the difference is largely symbolic. I lived in Florida for a long time, and my primary vote didn't matter in 2004, either. You don't get the candidates campaigning there (but then, neither do I now that I no longer live in Florida), but other than that, the only people that really lose are the 200 or so state party activists who won't get to go to Denver (and I think they got what they deserve).

the media will be utterly silent before and after. I'm seeing no reason to turn out on the 29th. There are no local or state primaries worthy of my participation. *sigh*

Kind of important that one. You might want to look into it.

They agreed to rules and then broke them. I'm sorry for you, I am, but your party leaders are responsible for your pain.

I should definitely have known better. I cannot believe I missed this. And if I did, I can bet 95% of the state's voters have no clue either.

I don't know if the situation is the same in Florida, but there is an expectation that Michigan will regain their delegates at the convention. Michigan voters can vote for "uncommitted" if they don't like who's on the Dem ballot (write-ins won't count for those candidates who have taken themselves off the ballot).

Is it the Florida state legislature that did this or was the Florida Democratic party complicit in any way? The reason I ask is because I am fairly certain the Republicans still have a super majority in the state legislature. In other words, every Democrat could walk out and the Republicans would still have a quorum with which to conduct business.

Does this ruling affect Republicans voting in the state's primary?

. See my post for you below. The whole Florida bunch of leaders were guilty of it.

A little known malady affecting many Americans, particularly Democrats, that first appeared in 2000. Many still cringe at the name, Florida.

been following this from the beginning..please read post #12. :)

"Florida Democrats are all for it"...March 2006. All for the early primary that far ahead.

"Nobody realized it, but the storm began gathering in late March 2006. New Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio, a Miami Republican, visited Washington-based Florida reporters and touted a plan to boost Florida's influence in picking presidential nominees by moving the primary earlier than March.

"With all due respect to New Hampshire and Iowa, nowhere are you going to be on a national stage like Florida," Rubio said at the time. "You're going to get questions about Israel, Latin America, immigration. It's the old South, it's Latin, it's Midwestern, it's rural and urban."

Rubio already had Democrats on board.

"Florida Democrats are all for it," Mark Bubriski, spokesman for the Florida Democratic Party, said at the time."

I will go read your journal now.

get rid of Howard Dean. He'll be blamed for everything - like enforcing the rules of the DNC. McAuliffe warned MI and FL and they paid attention when he said their delegates wouldn't be counted.

I mean nasty stuff. The bloggers could stand up for him, but they don't.

No one here defends him at all.

is the brainchild of Sen. Levin and, I think, our governor.

Can't understand it. Levin supports Clinton - but he always votes the right way - against the war, etc., hardly ever the same way as HC. And he's in the Senate where he has contact with OBama. He have been wiser to stay neutral. I wonder if maybe I won't vote for him in the primary.

The power of the DLC seems to be unlimited.

Poor Dean. They seem to have him treed.

by both the state party and their little game and the DNC, which enacted draconian punitive measures. I think the punishment was reactionary and extreme.

I'm pissed at both.

And both are vital states in the general election. Some Dems and left leaning independents are voting for McCain because they don't feel like voting "uncommitted". I'm going to just go ahead and vote for Romney because I hate him and want to see him get his ass kicked in the general election. He's easier than McCain, who I see as very strong in this state. Edwards and Obama were fools for removing themselves from the ballot.

Once again the party is shooting itself in the foot.

Otherwise I'd vote for someone polling in the single digits in the GOP.

I really cannot figure out what the fuck they are thinking. I'm moving into numb.

Don't you read the paper or the links on internet sites?

And that is part of why I'm reeling. If someone like me had no idea, than I'm going to guess 90% or more of registered Democrats in Florida have no clue.