When will all the unfairness come to an end? According to the Denver Post, Bernie Sanders won an additional delegate in Colorado than what the Colorado Democratic Party initially revealed.
In the beginning, the party forecasted that Sanders would acquire 38 delegates, compared to Clinton’s 28. After 10 Colorado superdelegates were surveyed about their support for Clinton, the presidential hopeful tied Sanders 38-38 in delegates. If Clinton acquired the support of the final two superdelegates, she “could have actually won Colorado despite losing the primary vote by 20 points.”
However, on March 1 when the party voted, it was reported that “Sanders received 54 percent to Clinton’s 45 percent in Denver County,” when the correct figures displayed a 56.5 percent to 43 percent advantage for Sanders. Therefore, instead of the two Democratic candidates dividing the eight delegates equally as first anticipated, Sanders will receive five, while Clinton gets three.
According to the Denver Post, the “party discovered the discrepancy a week after the caucus but did not correct the public record.” Although Hillary Clinton’s campaign was made aware of the mistake last week, officials failed to inform Sanders’ campaign, and the public, until Monday.
“It was an embarrassment on our part for sure,” Colorado Democratic Party Chairman Rick Palacio admitted. “Whomever dialed the numbers in must have had a little weirdness happen. The official results were reported correctly, but when they dialed them in using the touch-tone, it looks like something got transposed.”
This announcement comes days before the presidential hopefuls’ debate in Brooklyn, New York.
It’s concerning that the Sanders campaign was not informed of this obvious error until days after Clinton was notified. It makes me question the Colorado Democratic Party’s intentions, as well as its overall honesty throughout this campaign.
Hopefully after this mistake, numbers will be checked more closely and carefully; it would be in the party’s best interest to not only be transparent with the public, but to also establish goodwill among people who are already so distrustful of governing bodies.
Featured image via YouTube by Seven Days US under a Creative Commons license.
