US Supreme Court Rules "No right to vote for Presidential Electors"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Gene Spafford <spaf () cerias purdue edu>
Date: July 19, 2004 1:58:09 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: For IP: US Supreme Court Rules "No right to vote for 
Presidential Electors"

In the Washington Post this morning:



> Usurping the Voters
>
> By Peter M. Shane
>
> Monday, July 19, 2004; Page A17  (summary; full text at 
> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60580-2004Jul18.html>)
>
> "The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote 
> for electors for the President of the United States," the court said, 
> "unless and until the state legislature chooses a statewide election 
> as the means to implement its power to appoint members of the 
> Electoral College."
>
> ...For example, even if Republicans narrowly won New Mexico, the 
> Democrat-controlled state government could decide to cast New Mexico's 
> electoral votes for the Democratic candidate in retaliation against 
> what might appear to be Republican election "irregularities" in 
> another state.
>
> ...Republican state governments in Florida, New Hampshire and Ohio, 
> and Democrats in New Mexico, could spare us all some electoral 
> suspense and simply decide their respective states' electoral votes on 
> their own.
>
> ...But unless the Supreme Court repudiates its dictum in Bush v. Gore, 
> there is an entirely serious prospect that a capricious state 
> government, Republican or Democratic, might seek to decide the 
> presidential election by removing the choice from the voters.
>
> The writer is a professor of law at Ohio State University.

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