The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Archives => Politics => Election 2008 => Topic started by: Chris_ on January 15, 2009, 10:28:42 AM
-
The Minnesota Recount Was Unconstitutional
There's still plenty of time for the state to get it right.
Wall Street Journal EXCERPT: (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123197800446483619.html)
By MICHAEL STOKES PAULSEN
You would think people would learn. The recount in the contest between Norm Coleman and Al Franken for a seat in the U.S. Senate isn't just embarrassing. It is unconstitutional.
This is Florida 2000 all over again, but with colder weather. Like that fiasco, Minnesota's muck of a process violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Indeed, the controlling Supreme Court decision is none other than Bush v. Gore.
Remember Florida? Local officials conducting recounts could not decide what counted as a legal vote. Hanging chads? Dimpled chads? Should "undervotes" count (where a machine failed to read an incompletely-punched card)? What about "overvotes" (where voters punched more than one hole)? Different counties used different standards; different precincts within counties were inconsistent.
The Florida Supreme Court intervened and made things worse, ordering a statewide recount of some types of rejected ballots but not others. It specified no standards for what should count as a valid vote, leaving the judgment to each county. And it ordered partial recounts already conducted in some counties (but not others) included in the final tabulation. The result was chaos.
The Opinion Journal Widget
Download Opinion Journal's widget and link to the most important editorials and op-eds of the day from your blog or Web page.
By a vote of 7-2, Bush v. Gore (2000) ruled that Florida's recount violated the principle that all votes must be treated uniformly.
-
This should provide weeks, if not months of DU entertainment :cheersmate:
-
The Minnesota Recount Was Constipational
Fixed :II:
-
Fixed :II:
Boy howdy! You got that right!