Former Michagan Senator: Clinton manipulated the ballot

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080114/NEWS15/80114043

[rquoter]Riegle: Clinton's actions manipulated the ballot

January 14, 2008

By TINA LAM

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

The Michigan Democratic ballot is a sham that was rigged by Hillary Rodham Clinton, her husband and her supporters to give the nation the impression that she’s the leading candidate in Michigan, an angry former Sen. Don Riegle said Monday.

Riegle appeared at a rally in Detroit today to encourage would-be supporters of Barack Obama and John Edwards to vote uncommitted in Tuesday’s primary. Riegle said he supports one of the two, but wouldn’t say which.

“What happened in Michigan is not very different from what used to happen in the old Soviet Union,” Riegle said. “The Clinton machine manipulated the ballot. They don’t care how they win, only that they do. It’s wrong and people need to know that.”


Riegle said the Democratic candidates had an understanding, after Michigan defied the party and tried to become the first state to hold a primary, that none of them would compete in Michigan. Obama and Edwards honored the agreement, but Clinton did not and put her name on the ballot, he said.


“People should not permit the Clintons—both Bill and Hillary—to have an unfair advantage in Michigan,” said Riegle.


Riegle retired in 1995 after 28 years in the Senate and House. He now lives in Washington, D.C., where he works for an international communications company and occasionally acts as a lobbyist. He said he paid his own way to come to Michigan to speak at rallies in Detroit, Flint and Lansing on the uncommitted vote. He owns a home in Glen Arbor, he said.


Besides Clinton, candidates Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel are also on the Democratic ballot. Backers of other candidates have been told to vote Uncommitted. Write-in votes will not be counted. If Uncommitted wins 15% of the vote in a congressional district, delegates will be chosen later to represent other candidates such as Obama and Edwards, Riegle said. [/rquoter]

 

this has got to be troubling for the first female black presidential candidate.

[rquoter]Potentially troubling news for Clinton in Michigan 'win'

(CNN) — Hillary Clinton faced a grim statistic in Michigan tonight, despite her primary "win" there: results revealed that she may have reason to worry about her grasp on the African-American vote.

The Michigan primary vote was essentially meaningless: the national party stripped the state of its delegates because it held its contest too early in the election season, and Clinton was the only major Democratic contender whose name appeared on the ballot.

Even so, roughly 70 percent of Michigan’s African-American voters — a group that makes up a quarter of Michigan’s Democratic electorate — did not cast their votes for Clinton, choosing the “uncommitted” option instead. Yet these voters weren’t uncommitted at all: in fact, according to CNN exit polls, they overwhelmingly favored Barack Obama, whose name did not appear on the ballot.

Had Obama’s name been on the Michigan ballot, CNN exit polls show that he would have won an overwhelming 73 percent of the African-American vote, in contrast to 22 percent who say they would have voted for Clinton under those circumstances. If South Carolina’s large African-American community votes as Michigan’s, Hillary may not be feeling much ‘southern hospitality’ in that state.

–CNN Political Pro[/rquoter]