Petz
ted, <The court didn't bother to order a statewide hand recount>
Why do suppose this is? Seems inconsistent with the lofty language on page 8:
Twenty-five years ago, this Court commented that the will of the people, not a hyper-technical reliance upon statutory provisions, should be our guiding principle...
...the principle that the will of the people is the paramount consideration.9
That's right, the will of the people. And if I remember correctly the judges asked both attorneys did they want a statewide hand recount and both the Democrat and Republican attorneys said "no".
Seems to me that would best be served by allowing ALL counties to do hand recounts. Now, the supreme court was too smart to make their bias obvious. They didn't forbid new recount petitions per se.
Once again, I am 90% sure they asked if a state wide recount was wanted and they were turned down. But lets look at the issue of their bias.....all of them were appointed by Democrats and I imagine they do battle from time to time with the Republican legislature.; however, they are attorneys with careers. I don't think they can afford to look too biased with the whole world watching.....that would be pretty stupid behavior and I assume they want careers after this fiasco is over. There is no question that there ruling helped Gore....but the help was fairly modest..already Dade County has stopped the hand counting 'cause they can't meet the Sunday deadline. If it had been more than modest, I think there were be talk right now to challenge the ruling itself.
But they did set a deadline of Sunday for completing any recounts. The deadline is totally arbitrary since there is nothing in Fla. low saying anything special about November 26, 2000.
That's not entirely arbitrary. FL as well as other states have to have their votes certified and whatever else done by 12/12/00. It was concluded that a deadline by this Sunday would allow enough time for everyone to wrap up and meet the Dec. deadline.
The deadline is illegal and arbitrary. Florida law makes it obvious that, until the election is certified, any county board can start the process for recount. See the 'justices' own explanation of the law:
Judges can make law by the way they interpret law....I don't think this court will get hung over this issue. The time was deemed necessary to complete the voting in a very significant election. FL plays a very pivotal role and the only reason we are in this mess is because FL didn't do an vote counting correctly the first time.
...(page 11) This request [by the county board to request a manual recount] must be filed with the Board [i.e., the State board] before the Board certifies the election results [last I heard, this has not been done] or within seventy-two hours after the election, whichever occurs later.13 Upon filing the written request for a manual recount, the canvassing board may authorize a manual recount.14 The decision whether to conduct a manual recount is vested in the sound discretion of the Board.15 If the canvassing board decides to authorize the manual recount,...
If some one in FL feels strongly enough about this issue, let them contest it...I think they will lose but I am not an attorney.
So, there is no justification in FLorida law for the Sunday deadline. It was obviously made short so that Republican counties would have no chance of doing a recount.
You can choose to interpret it that way but I don't think its very defensible if the Republican counsel turned down a request to a statewide recount.
ted |
