Postponing US election?

[Jeff964]

Read on MSN that the US government is contemplating postponing November's US election due to high probability of terrorist attacks in US.

Is delaying US Presidential election legal? Or is this whole idea masterminded by Bush and Cheney to avoid a repeat of what happened to Spain last's president after losing his election due to Madrid bombings.

[RallyJon]

I think they should hold the election two days earlier than scheduled and not tell anyone.

Hey, it worked once...

[techweenie]

We've had what? 100/150 specific 'terrorist warnings' going back 2+ years involving threats to bridges, shopping malls, apartment buildings, mass gatherings, patriotic events, etc.

My favorite was a couple of weeks ago when 'floating beer coolers, rigged to explode' were going to be sent down popular rivers on the 4th.

I think there's a certain segment of the population that probably can be frightened out of voting if threats are mentioned just before election day. It would certainly be easy to float those suggested threats in areas that are dominated by one political party... hint, hint.

[VaSteve]

I think, that they would only delay the election if there WAS an attack, to prevent the same kind of thing that happened in Spain. That might hold off AQ if they see Kerry is leading. Then again, if Kerry is leading a domestic nut might stage an attack. (conpiracy theorists now unite)

[slope-nz]

What a joke. Postponing the election can't even be a concideration. Is there any reason this needs to be explaned ? Randy

[Yankee911]

Does the Reichstag--I mean Congress--mysteriously burn before or after the terrorist attack takes place in early November?

[Moneyguy1]

Sounds like a variation of the "Don't change leaders in the middle of a war" school...

[techweenie]

Hey, if Diebold had gotten its machines in enough states, we wouldn't have needed the election at all!

[84porsche]

Who can authorize such an act? Wouldn't the American people need to vote on something of this nature (hence what's the difference if they are voting for a postponement or the president).

[Tyson Schmidt]

We're in the middle of a war? Really?!

What happened to "Mission Accomplished"?

[dd74]

Postpone elections? Here? And we had the gall to make fun of Spain?

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I believe that can't be done without a constitutional amendment; AFIK the date of presidential elections is set in the Constitution. Even if they try to do this, it will be challenged by the ACLU or someone and almost certainly upheld.

[mikester]

Personally my opinion is that unless the countries infrustructure was severely damaged - the elections should be held.

The madrid bombings didn't stop the live people from voting. Sure it affected their votes but it was a current event and as such current events effect elections. I think they are supposed to aren't they?

my thoughts, flame on.

[on-ramp]

good thing the terrorists are not changing our way of life...

btw, since 9/11 we've been told the "war on terror" has been "going well".
then,
what's all the fear about Al Qaeda for?

[island911]

Originally posted by Tyson Schmidt
We're in the middle of a war? Really?!

What happened to "Mission Accomplished"?

uh, yeah . .. that's why they are different words; war & mission. (they're NOT the samething)

Just a guess; but I think al-Qaida still wants to create some more mass killings. --thus "war".

On the election:
One thing consistant about al-Qaida is they like to surprise.
It seem to me that floating an election 'contingency plan' helps take the wind out of any al-Qaida plans to disrupt, ala Spain.

[mikester]

On the election:
One thing consistant about al-Qaida is they like to surprise.
It seem to me that floating a 'contingency plan' helps take the wind out of any al-Qaida plans to disrupt, ala Spain. [/B]

Far as I can tell from my research via Google the word disrupt doesn't accurately portray what happened in Spain. The event certainly influenced how people voted but it didn't disrupt any elections. In fact - it more likely got a higher voter turnout.

Granted that was their goal - over throw the government there (most likely - no direct evidence has been uncovered to explore the motives precisely). Seriously, a plan of action in case of mass disaster is a great idea and in retrospect to my previous post I am not sure I can define what should or shouldn't stop the election from occurring on the day it is supposed to. So once you decided it's postponed when is it then held? The constitution isn't clear about much accept that the sitting president must be out of office by Jan 20.

[island911]

hmmm. . .So you don't like the choice of verbage.

dis·rupt (dis-rupt“) tr.v. dis·rupt·ed, dis·rupt·ing, dis·rupts. 1. To throw into confusion or disorder: Protesters disrupted the candidate's speech. 2. To interrupt or impede the progress, movement, or procedure of: Our efforts in the garden were disrupted by an early frost.

I guess that was a bit soft. . . should have been; 'influced by mass-murder of innocent civilians'

[mikester]

Cold hard truth, the elections were held without incident as scheduled. Current events effect elections - that is the way it should be. The facts are though that in the three days between the bombings and the elections absolute truth about what happened and who did it wasn't obtained so most voters did so with likely inaccurate information. Of course, the complete scene still hasn't been uncovered to my knowledge but it is extremely likely that it was a terrorist organization. Their goal was to effect the election - I don't think there is any way to stop that effectively.

That those civilians were murdered is not really part of the debate.

[emcon5]

Originally posted by Jeff964
Read on MSN that the US government is contemplating postponing November's US election due to high probability of terrorist attacks in US.

Is delaying US Presidential election legal? Or is this whole idea masterminded by Bush and Cheney to avoid a repeat of what happened to Spain last's president after losing his election due to Madrid bombings.

Doen't anyone know what a contingancy plan is?

Lower Manhattin was shut down for several days after the WTC attack, and IIRC Power and water were out in places for a couple weeks. If that had happened on Monday before a presidential election, how exactly would voting take place? It is not like the inaugriation takes place the next day, if they need to push it back a few days, it is not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things.

None of the reports I have read say anything about "US government is contemplating postponing November's US election", they have all been "if we had to postpone the election, how would/could we do it?"

There is some more info here:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/11/election.day.delay/index.html

These are the parts the tinfoil hat crowd should pay attention to:

Originally posted by Condoleezza Rice
"We've had elections in this country when we were at war, even when we were in civil war, and we should have the elections on time. That's the view of the president. That's the view of the administration," she said. "No one is thinking of postponing the elections."

and

Originally posted by Rep. Christopher Cox, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee
"We don't have any intelligence to suggest that it is going to happen, but we're preparing for all of these contingencies now," Cox said.

Noting that New York election officials were able to postpone their September 11, 2001, primary election after terrorists slammed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center, Cox said "there isn't any body that has that authority to do that for federal elections."

"So what Secretary Ridge has asked the Justice Department to do is, 'Give me a legal memo, tell me what will be necessary. Do we need to go to Congress and get legislation?' "

Tom

[350HP930]

I could see a special absentee balloting system for people who can prove they were disrupted from reaching their polling place but suspending a national election should be out of the question.

It was not too long ago that Retired General Tommy Franks said that the bush administration was planning on suspending the constitution if there was another attack on US soil.

It appears he was right and the bush adminstration is just working on its own version of the reichstag fire.

I am sure if things look really bad for bush right before the election some calculated incompetence or some evil plumbers can make their contingancy become reality.