DETROIT - While Republicans in Michigan picked their candidate for the party's presidential nomination Tuesday, Democratic voters cast ballots that have no bearing on the selection of the party's nominee.
The Democratic National Committee has punished the local party for violating its rules by scheduling the primary between the first nominating contests, which took place in Iowa and New Hampshire, and "Super Tuesday" on February 5.
For their defiance, Michigan Democrats are being stripped of the 156 delegates who would have represented the state during the party's national convention in August, when the eventual nominee will formally be named.
Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, defended the state party's decision, saying its voice would have been drowned out if it had been held along with some 20 other states on February 5 or on a later date.
"We need to be heard," she told CNN.
Michigan, the home of a struggling US auto industry, was deprived of Democratic campaigns as the party's candidates agreed to boycott the state.
The names of two top contenders, Barack Obama and John Edwards, do not even appear on the ballots.
Michigan is an "open" primary, so Democratic voters may choose between Hillary Clinton and longshots Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel, or they may cross over to the Republican side and vote in their opponents' race.
For their part, the Republican candidates have been campaigning hard in Michigan, whose local party also disobeyed the national organization but got away with a slap on the wrist.
The Republican National Committee, which has similar rules as the Democrats, decided to take away half of Michigan's 60 delegates for the Republican National Convention in September.
Democrats have also stripped Florida of its 210 delegates for setting the state primary on January 29, while Republicans cut the punishment in half again, allowing the state to have 57 instead of 114 delegates.
aje/lt/ksh
01/15/2008 23:25 GMT