FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Senate Democratic Leader Steven A. Geller (D-Cooper City) on Thursday announced that he has filed suit in federal court to force the national Democratic Party to recognize the votes cast by 1.75 million Floridians during the January 29 presidential primary and seat the state’s delegation with full voting authority.

Click here to read the complaint in its entirety. (PDF)

Geller is an uncommitted “super delegate.” There are two other plaintiffs, a Barack Obama delegate and a Hillary Clinton delegate.

“This litigation addresses the view of Howard Dean and the Democratic National Committee that 1.75 million Democrats can be ignored at will,” said Geller. “We believe we’ve found a winning legal strategy that will once and for all force the DNC to not only obey its own rules but to listen to the voices of millions of Democrats in one of the most influential states in the nation.”

The lawsuit, a joint effort filed by Geller’s Fort Lauderdale-based law firm of Greenspoon Marder, Miami lawyer Benedict Kuehne, and Dan Stengle of Hopping Green & Sams in Tallahassee, was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The litigation in particular outlines the rules which the DNC is obliged to follow but did not, along with certain U.S. Constitutional rights the veteran state lawmaker and party super delegate contends are being violated.

“Unlike the contested primary in Michigan, the names of all of the presidential candidates appeared on the Florida primary ballot, and Democrats here made their choice,” said Geller, who remains uncommitted in the race. “The purpose of this lawsuit is not to support one candidate over another; it’s to enforce one of the most basic tenets of our democracy: Count the votes as they were cast.”