From: Matt Jensen (mattj@newsblip.com)
Date: Tue Nov 14 2000 - 10:40:16 PST
On Thu, 9 Nov 2000, Jeff Bone wrote:
> There's absolutely no Constitutional provision for this, ...
It is constitutional. U.S. Constitution, Section 3, Clause 1:
"The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and
Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature
thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such
Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing [sic] Senators."[1]
So Florida is within its constitutional rights to prescribe the manner of
elections, and courts have ruled that that includes administrative
features such as recounts and revotes (which are rare but are sometimes
ordered).[2]
> ... fundamental fairness dictates that if there's a
> "revote" in one small part of the country to decide this issue, then
> there must be a nationwide "revote."
No, that's not necessary, thanks to the Electoral College. One benefit
the College provides in this day and age is that a close vote in Florida
doesn't force you to recount or revote in Texas. All that is in question
is Florida's electors, and how people in other states voted or would
revote is irrelevant to that.
-Matt Jensen
NewsBlip
Seattle
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[1] http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Constitution.html
[2] For some interesting references on state election powers, look at
today's opinion denying Bush's request to stop a manual recount:
http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/election2000/siegellopinion.pdf
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