Rick,
You criticize Al Gore for appealing to the Florida Supreme Court, the highest court in the process set forth by the the Florida legislature to resolve contest disputes under the statutes it enacted. Gov. Bush could have stopped the process by not appealing to the USSC.
It does state, however, that (under Article II, Section II):
"Each state shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress..."
That is the issue that you have neglected in your discussion. The Florida legislature has written laws governing the appointment of electors and the process by which elections shall be conducted. And they will be the ultimate democratic body that will be selecting those electors.
Now, you are just getting carried away here. Under Art. II, although the legislature can determine the "Manner," the power to choose eletors is vested in each state. "Each state shall appoint. . . ."
The legislature presumably has broad discretion to determing the Manner (i.e. game of hearts, vote of the people, appointment by the State insurance commissioner, duel, bingo game, etc.) by which the electors are selected. Art II., Section 1 does not say that the legislature can select the electors; that power conferred on the State itself.
If actual selection by the legislature is what the Framers intended, they would have just said that the legislature could choose the electors. Instead it gave them nothing more than the power to determine the "Manner" of choosing electors. Your interpretation would write the word "Manner" out of the Constitution.
Having chosen the "Manner" by which electors for President are to be selected (popular vote, protest procedure set forth in statute, contest procedure set forth in statute, disputes resolved by the Florida courts that are run by the Florida Supreme Court), the FL legislature has already exercised the full extent of its Constitutional authority. The FL legislature cannot--after an election outcome it wishes to ignore--change the Manner for choosing electors after the election.
Your interpretation of Art. II suggests that we could skip the 2004 election and just look at who controls the legislatures after the 2002 election. Or, maybe we just run the campaign in states were no one party control the entire legislature? That won't work. That is not what Art II, Sec. 1 says. It just says that the legislature can determine the "Manner" of choosing the electors; the legislature has no power to actually select the electors (unless of course it prior to the election decides its "Manner" is a vote by the legislature).
Can we possibly get back to Qualcomm where you are on surer footing?
saukriver |
