Clinton or Obama? MoveOn Members Voting Now On Which Candidate To Endorse

Thu, January 31, 2008 - 2:09 PM

MoveOn.org, the on-line liberal group that grabbed headlines for those newspaper ads casting Gen. David Petraeus as “General Betray Us?” is asking members to decide by 11 a.m. Friday whether to mobilize for Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.

“We have a big decision to make,” says an e-mail just sent out to members of the group, which claims 147,080 members in Florida and 3.2.million members nationally.

“Yesterday, John Edwards left the race for president, leaving just two major Democratic candidates,” adds the message. “And next Tuesday, over half of MoveOn's members will go to the polls in the biggest primary day in American history.”

The e-mail notes: “When we surveyed over 200,000 MoveOn members yesterday to see if we should go forward with an endorsement process, a big majority said ‘yes.’

Here’s how MoveOn says its endorsement process will work over the next 24 hours..

-- Everyone who was a MoveOn member as of noon Eastern on Wednesday, and will be at least 18 years old by November 4th, 2008 gets one vote.

-- Voting lasts now through 11:00 a.m. Eastern tomorrow—Friday This will allow MoveOn to make an endorsement in time to make a difference on Super Tuesday.

-- MoveOn will only endorse a candidate if more than two-thirds of its members select that candidate. These are the same rules MoveOn has applied in contested Democratic congressional primaries. If MoveOn endorses a candidate, it will immediately start campaigning for that candidate.

-- If no candidate receives more than two-thirds of the votes cast, MoveOn will encourage members to vote and play an active role in the primary process, but will not endorse at this time.

The e-mail also notes: “We are taking extra security measures to protect the integrity of the vote. A random sampling of voters will get verification phone calls after voting. We've also ensured that each ballot is unique to one MoveOn member—so forwarding links will not allow more people to vote.”

-- Billy House