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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sly_ who wrote (80335)	11/17/2000 8:56:55 PM
From: James West	Respond to of 769670

Congress investigating possible challenge to Florida electoral votes By MITCHELL PROTHERO, UPI Congressional Reporter WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (UPI) -- Top Republicans are investigating various strategies for challenging the vote of the Electoral College after it meets next month to determine who becomes president. At the same time, some experts are questioning whether the decisive votes of Florida's 25 electors can be legally certified at all because Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush, has recused himself from the election process. With the battle for the presidency hanging by a razor's edge in the Sunshine State and a number of legal challenges to the result there wending their way through various courts, GOPers on the Hill are looking at the possibility that congress itself may have to debate and determine the outcome of last week's Presidential election. Staffers for Reps. Jim Leach, R-Iowa, and James Sensenbrener, R-Wisc., say that they have been working with the Congressional Research Service to determine how the House and Senate would address a presidential election which continues to be contested after the Electoral College vote in December. Leach Chief of Staff Bill Tate said that his office was looking at the legal precedents that govern how members of Congress could challenge the legitimacy of a state's electoral votes. "It's obvious that given the uproar in Florida that for whatever reason should the election be brought to Congress, we should be prepared for what the various possibilities are," he said. "We don't expect it will be necessary, although we are looking at whether a slate of electors might be challenged by a member. I doubt the bad feelings on this [situation] might go away before Congress gets the results." So far, the research has determined that after the electors meet in each state capital to vote, the results are sent to Washington, D.C., and opened in a joint session of Congress in January. After this, say experts, the picture becomes murky. Tate said that, while it is unclear exactly how a challenge might occur, there is a possibility that the Florida votes cannot be counted as official without certification by Gov. Jeb Bush. "Because Jeb Bush recused himself from the process and because it is our understanding that the executive of the state must certify the results, we don't know if they count or could be challenged," Tate said. "The CRS material says that the governor must certify the vote. Can he delegate this authority to another official? It's still unclear." Without certification by the actual governor of Florida, it is therefore possible that Florida's electoral votes might not count at all. Or the technicality could serve as the basis for a challenge by either Democrats or Republicans on the floor of the joint session of Congress which announces the result. While this work continues, House Majority Whip Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Tex., has circulated a memo detailing the Electoral College process in the Congress, including how to address a challenge to the electoral votes from a disputed state. However, DeLay spokesman Jonathan Baron denies that the memo indicates any plan by the GOP Congressional leadership to challenge the results of last week's election and says that it was prepared simply as legal guidance at the request of various members. "Several members of the GOP caucus requested information on the Electoral College process in Congress," he said. "The memo explains the role of Congress in examining the electoral vote; it does not set policy for the members." Pete Jefferies, spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., described the memo as "legal beagle talk, nothing more than a bunch of case law on what could happen with the Florida election." "This is not a case of the majority whip trying to overturn an election," he added. "It's just a working staff document so they have some idea of what's going on." According to the memo, a challenge must come in writing from at least one member of the House and one senator. At that point, according to Tate, the joint session then adjourns and each body separately debates the challenges for two hours. Then each chamber votes to accept or reject each individual challenge. Then the post-challenge electoral votes are counted and a winner declared if a majority of votes have been received from "the whole number of electors appointed." It is unclear, however, whether this number includes electors whose votes have been successfully challenged. If it does, then the winning candidate would still need 270 Electoral College votes, a number which neither candidate could obtain without the 25 votes from Florida. Without such a majority, according to the Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the House of Representatives would select the president by a ballot, with each state receiving one vote. The Senate would select the vice president, with each member receiving a single vote. -- Copyright 2000 by United Press International. All rights reserved