Fla. Legislature to Hold Special Session, May Pick Electors
Wednesday, December 6, 2000
Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature will hold a special session beginning Friday that could choose the state's 25 presidential electors and ensure a victory for George W. Bush.
The decision to hold the session gives lawmakers just enough time to pick electors to settle a presidential election that is being challenged in several courts.
"We're protecting Florida's 25 electoral votes and its 6 million voters," said John McKay, the president of the state Senate.
"I believe deeply ... that we have a duty to protect Florida's participation in the Electoral College," added Rep. Tom Feeney, speaker of the House, who had been urging a special session for days.
Both men said they hoped that final adoption of legislation establishing a slate of electors would be rendered unnecessary through a final court resolution of the contested election between Bush and Al Gore.
"It's inappropriate and it's unnecessary and it's unfair," said Rep. Lois Frankel, leader of the House Democrats. "We're circumventing the will of 6 million voters."
*****(see note below) The Florida governor, Jeb Bush, has already signed a certified slate of Republican electors for his brother, who was certified the winner of Florida by a slim 537-vote margin. If the courts invalidate that slate because of Gore's pending legal actions, the Republican-controlled Florida Legislature could use the session to override with a Bush slate.
If Congress gets competing slates and the two chambers disagree on which to accept, the slate signed by Florida's governor then will prevail, said Florida State University law professor Nat Stern.
It wouldn't be the first time Florida lawmakers have been snagged in this kind of scenario.
In 1868 when Ulysses S. Grant was the Republican candidate, Republicans in Florida's Reconstruction-era Legislature turned aside Democratic protests and sent three GOP lawmakers to the Electoral College to vote for Grant.
The Florida Legislature last held a special session in January, when lawmakers took three days to pass laws making lethal injection the primary method of execution over the electric chair.
foxnews.com
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****** It has been obvious to this poster for 3 weeks that this action was where this was all heading, I.E. the state legislature which BTW trumps the Fl state Supreme and all other courts. The U.S. Supreme court has already deferred back to the state. |
