Arizona Voters Don't Want Excuses, They Want to be Counted. Do Over AZ Primary
[UPDATE - MARCH 28 - Sanders voters who were disenfranchised in Arizona have adopted the hashtag #ReVoteOrRevolt to spread awareness of their demands]
If there is one thing that is patently obvious about the "fiasco" of the AZ primary it's that Hillary Clinton forces don't give a fig about the hearings and mea culpas now taking place after thousands of AZ voters were disenfranchised. They've got what they want: the delegates. Now on to the next state, where possibly the same thing could happen. In legal parlance what Clinton got is known as the "fruit of the poisonous tree," which in a famous case referred to evidence obtained illegally by police.
The US Supreme Court reasoned that the temptation to break the law would be too great to resist unless the very thing itself was taken away, the ill-gotten gains, in this case, evidence. We don't know which side was harmed most, but the worst of the worst happened in poor counties, natural Sanders territory. Huge turnout indicated new voters, also a good sign for the Sanders strategy.
Ill-gotten evidence is now required to be thrown out. It worked. Authorities think twice before risking losing their entire case.
Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton is calling for an official US Department of Justice probe into the "fiasco" of the Democratic primary, in which some voters have said they could not vote because medical conditions prevented them from standing in line for hours. The state legislature has scheduled hearings on Monday, March 28 at 10 a.m. in House Hearing Room 4 of the Arizona State Capitol, according to a post on a Sanders supporter group Facebook page.
A parallel, "fruit of the poisonous tree" logic should now be applied to any ill-gotten gains from the AZ Democratic primary. Now there will be hearings at which the public can vent, stories be told, and officials promise to never, ever let it happen again. Who cares? We still don't know if a large number of the people in those four and five hour lines in poor precincts might have voted for Bernie Sanders, as opposed to wealthier suburbs which had plenty of voting machines. The early mail-in vote (mostly elderly) would be a pro-Hilllary demographic.
It's not as if it wouldn't matter. AZ is a key state, and anything but a big win for Hillary would signal trouble for her campaign. Sanders cleaned up Utah and Idaho by 80% both, the kind of margins he needs to catch up in pledged delegates. A closer loss than the 60 - 40% margin of the loss to Hillary in AZ would shift delegates, and rob Hillary of her "stunning" victory. And that's what counts, not what is being said in any hearing.
Arizonans at the upcoming hearing should make a common demand. I don't want the states and the state Democratic party's excuses. I want to be counted. Do the damned thing over, and do it right. Borrow money if you have to. This is something you can't not have money for, because elections determine where all the rest of the money goes in the first place.
Sanders Keeps Whopping Trump, Trump Closing on Hillary
Most recent polls show that Bernie Sanders clobbers Trump in a general election, while Trump is closing fast on Hillary in national head-to-head matches. Now a CNN poll shows that Sanders has a national 20 point lead over Trump in a general election, about the double the lead Hillary has over Trump. But another report from Reuters shows Trump closing in on Hillary nationally, as her national security scandal continues to rock the front pages. Clinton is under official investigation by the FBI for deleting tens of thousands of possibly classified emails that were property of the US government. Wikileaks has posted an archive of Hillary's emails, obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request from the US State Department.
