Obama Says Next Michigan Vote Will "Probably" Be in November
BECKLEY, W.V. –- While Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continue to jab each other over a possible re-vote in Michigan and Florida, a transplanted Michigan voter got to the heart of the controversy today in West Virginia.
"When am I going to vote for you in Michigan?" asked Jeff Lynch, a patron at Murad's sports bar in Charleston, where Obama had stopped in to grab some buffalo wings and watch some basketball.
"Probably in the general election," Obama said. "A redo vote is very complicated. Because, for example, you had a lot of people who didn't think they could be counted, and they voted in the Republican primary…"
Lynch interrupted the senator. "Now they're opposed to voting."
Obama continued. "So some of them threatened they might sue. It's just a complicated, difficult thing to do."
"As long as we get the chance to vote for you," Lynch said.
"Oh yeah, in the general [election] I'll be right there, campaigning all the time," Obama said.
But Clinton would like to see Obama on a Michigan ballot substantially sooner than November. "For the life of me, I don't understand why Senator Obama seems to be afraid of letting there be a re-vote in Michigan," she said. "I do not see how two of the largest and most significant states can be disenfranchised and left out of the process of picking our nominee without raising the questions about the legitimacy of that nominee."
The governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, said she was disappointed that a state-run, privately funded primary was no longer a possibility, but that a mail-in contest or even a caucus are options that may still be considered. "There is no road to the White House that does not go through Michigan," she said. "It is essential that Michigan voters have a voice in who will be our party's nominee and, ultimately, the next president of the United States."