The Democrats are trying to resolve one of the biggest denials of voting rights in our country's history. Over two million votes offered during the Florida and Michigan primaries are awaiting their destination. The votes might go to their intended recipient or they might be thrown away.
The DNC voting rules are frequently revised and they have been revised this election season, but this essay is regarding the voters themselves. A vote is a gift to a candidate. Voting in an election is like going to the post office and mailing a gift package. When I do that I write the name of the person I'm giving the gift to on the box and I trust that the post office will deliver it to the lucky recipient. Likewise, when people go to vote they trust that their vote will be delivered to the person who they gave it to.
Another way that voting is like giving someone a gift is that before I buy I gift I think about it to make sure I buy an appropriate gift to make the recipient happy because I care about that person and that's why I'm giving them a gift. Hence why people say, "It is the thought that counts." Likewise, before people vote they think about who to vote for. For example, Democratic voters in Florida and Michigan are mature adults who carefully thought about who to vote for. They had a lot of time to learn about the candidates because the candidates had been campaigning for months. The two top candidates, Clinton and Obama, had been campaigning for one year prior to the Florida and Michigan elections, so for a year voters had been reading about these two candidates, watching them deliver speeches on TV, discussing the candidates with friends at work, home, and on the Internet. So after one whole year of constantly hearing about the candidates in the media, the voters used all that information to decide who to give their gift vote to. So "It is the thought that counts," in the sense that the voters thought carefully about who to vote for and when they offer their vote to a specific candidate their thought will count, it will be counted with all the other votes. And unlike a typical birthday or holiday gift that includes the thought and the physical gift, a vote gift is 100% thought. The thought is directed to the candidate the voter cares about and it is precious.
Thus, when the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee meets on May 31st to distribute vote gifts they should distribute the votes to their intended recipient. For example, the hundreds of thousands of vote gifts Floridians sent to Clinton should of course be given to Clinton. That is fair. If I sent a wreath by mail as a gift to my friend then it wouldn't be ethical if the postal clerk took the wreath and gave it to someone else. The wreath was meant for my friend. Likewise, Democratic primary voters intended their votes to go to their preferred candidate and this preference is extremely important and should be honored. Each vote represents a thought, the thought that "This person is the best candidate and I'm offering my vote to help them win," thus it would be very unethical to go against a voter's intent and give their vote to someone who they did not intend it to be given to. A gift vote should be honored.
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