Obama camp concerned about mail-in votes

Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., shakes hands before he speaking at Jackson State University in Jackson, Miss., Monday, March 10, 2008. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

WASHINGTON—Florida's congressional delegation said Tuesday it opposes holding a Democratic presidential vote by mail, and Barack Obama expressed concerns about the fairness of that option.

Democratic leaders in Florida and Michigan have been considering a mail-in election to allocate delegates to the Democratic national convention between Sens. Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Democratic National Committee will not seat delegates chosen in primaries held in January, earlier than allowed under party rules.

In a statement, House members from Florida said they were committed to working with the DNC and state officials to find a solution to ensure that their 210 delegates take their place at the convention. However, "Our House delegation is opposed to a mail-in campaign or any redo of any kind."

The statement was issued by Rep. Alcee Hastings and put the House members at odds with Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Clinton supporter. He has been promoting a primary by mail, and his office has been consulting with officials in Oregon about how they handle it.

Obama, fresh off a win in Mississippi's primary, said in an interview with CNN that he had reservations about a vote by mail.

"I think there's some concerns in terms of making sure that whatever we do is fair, and that votes are properly counted and the logistics make sense," he said.

Earlier in the day, David Axelrod, Obama's senior strategist, told reporters that the campaign is reserving final judgment until a plan is offered.

"But obviously there are concerns about a mail-in vote. I mean, there are concerns about eligibility, ballot security," he said during a conference call. "The state of Oregon has mail-in voting, and it took them more than a decade to perfect it to the point where they felt that they could run a statewide campaign through mail-in votes. And now we're going to turn this process over to parties within the states to run on with a matter of weeks to prepare."

Clinton won both primaries, but all the Democratic candidates had agreed not to participate since the contests were held in violation of party rules. The states moved their primary dates earlier on the calendar to protest rules that favored Iowa and New Hampshire. But the tight race between Clinton and Obama is creating interest in do-over contests that would count toward the nomination.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean expressed support for a mail-in primary during a television interview Sunday.

"Every voter gets a ballot in the mail," Dean said on "Face the Nation" on CBS. "It's comprehensive, you get to vote if you're in Iraq or in a nursing home. It's not a bad way to do this."

Clinton's campaign did not immediately respond Tuesday to a request for comment.

In Michigan, Sen. Carl Levin told reporters Monday that a "caucus-by-mail" approach appeared to be the only practical way of settling Michigan's delegate dispute. But Levin earlier this week raised concerns of his own.

Two co-chairman of Obama's campaign in Michigan also say they're wary of redoing the primary by mail. They'd prefer that the DNC evenly split Michigan's 128 delegates between Clinton and Obama, who was not on the primary ballot because he didn't want to anger other early voting states.

State Sens. Buzz Thomas and Tupac Hunter, both of Detroit, said they've taken their concerns to Obama's national campaign in Chicago.

"You can't really verify signatures on ballots" in a mail-in election held by the state Democratic Party, state Sen. Buzz Thomas. "I strongly recommend that we do look to splitting Michigan's delegates 50-50 and taking that back to the national party."

Under that scenario, Michigan's 28 superdelegates would still be free to vote however they choose, he said. But the party would save the millions it would cost to hold a do-over election.

"This election is too important to do something that potentially could be fraught with mistakes," Hunter said.

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Associated Press Writers Jim Abrams in Washington and Kathy Barks Hoffman in Lansing, Mich., contributed to this report.