“SO DO IT. DO IT NOW”
by Sharon Rondeau
(Oct. 22, 2016) — In a Saturday afternoon tweet, WikiLeaks appeared to suggest that voters inclined toward Democrats should cast their vote on November 8 for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders over Democrat presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Until now, the open-government website has refrained from taking political positions on U.S. presidential candidates to this writer’s knowledge.
Sanders was Clinton’s only primary contender after former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley suspended his campaign early in the process. Former Sen. James Webb of Virginia entered the race on July 2 of last year but suspended his campaign less than four months later.
Sanders has served in the Congress since 1991, first as a U.S. Representative and for the last ten years as a U.S. Senator with an Independent designation.
Prior to the February 1 New Hampshire primaries, Sanders’s eligibility to seek the Democrat presidential nomination was questioned by Andy Martin on the basis that Sanders was not a member of the Democrat Party. “If you identify yourself as an Independent in Washington and in Vermont, how can you be a Democrat in New Hampshire?” Martin said in a press conference in November 2015.
The New Hampshire Ballot Law Commission ruled against Martin and maintained Sanders’s name on the primary ballot.
Although in July Wikileaks released emails exchanged among DNC operatives which belied their pledge of “neutrality” as to who would ultimately become the Democrat nominee, Sanders endorsed Clinton after she won more delegates and super-delegates in what some have said is a “rigged” system heavily-weighted by the Clinton-favoring super-delegates.
After a hard-fought primary season, on July 12, Sanders formally endorsed Clinton.
At the Democrat National Convention in late July, despite a number of endorsement speeches from his supporters, Sanders urged all convention delegates to cast their votes for Clinton to unify the party.
Sanders gained popularity during the primaries for his stated opposition to big banks and Wall Street power brokers. Viewed as an “outsider” by many, on his Senate website, Sanders states that “Throughout his career he has focused on the shrinking American middle class and the growing income and wealth gaps in the United States.”
In August, Sanders purchased a $575,000 “summer” home in the island community of North Hero, VT. The purchase reportedly occurred after Sanders’s wife, Jane, sold her late parents’ summer home in Maine.
State election laws allow for any legally-registered voter to write in the name of his or her preferred candidate if other than those appearing on the printed ballot or on touch-screen voting-machine menus.
“Early voting” has commenced in those states which allow it.