First Tuesday After the First Monday
I ran into this bit from Eugene Volokh about some preliminary thoughts from the Dept. of Homeland Security (reported by Newsweek) on what might be involved in postponing the Presidential election come November if we're attacked by terrorists. My favorite blogs (a/k/a the Usual Suspects), and others, have chimed in on the various implications, etc.
The LA Times now reports that the earlier report from Newsweek was premature and that no plans are planned for postponing the election. Simply in the abstract I can't fault folks for thinking down the road about what might be involved if it came down to that. New York City was conducting a primary election on September 11, 2001 and it had to be postponed and rescheduled after thousands of voters had already cast ballots. Had a national election been underway, how would it have been handled? Why not think about these problems in advance? I can't think of a reason why not to do just that.
But realistically, the entire scenario is a nightmare. The national election system wasn't built with this in mind and thoroughly adapting it at this late date is not possible. But even if a full postponement isn't possible, various contingencies are, and thinking about them is not a bad or wasteful thing to do. After all, the last thing either Bush or Kerry want is an election that isn't resolved by say, 6:00 AM on the Wednesday after..
Dan Drezner used the notion to ask two questions of his commenters:
The LA Times now reports that the earlier report from Newsweek was premature and that no plans are planned for postponing the election. Simply in the abstract I can't fault folks for thinking down the road about what might be involved if it came down to that. New York City was conducting a primary election on September 11, 2001 and it had to be postponed and rescheduled after thousands of voters had already cast ballots. Had a national election been underway, how would it have been handled? Why not think about these problems in advance? I can't think of a reason why not to do just that.
But realistically, the entire scenario is a nightmare. The national election system wasn't built with this in mind and thoroughly adapting it at this late date is not possible. But even if a full postponement isn't possible, various contingencies are, and thinking about them is not a bad or wasteful thing to do. After all, the last thing either Bush or Kerry want is an election that isn't resolved by say, 6:00 AM on the Wednesday after..
Dan Drezner used the notion to ask two questions of his commenters:
[W]ould a spectacular terrorist attack that took place close to Election day help President Bush or Senator Kerry? . . .I think that answer to that is "it depends", and so do most of Drezner's commenters. My favorite comment is from Tad Porter:
UPDATE: A second question: should a spectacular terrorist attack that took place close to Election day help President Bush or Senator Kerry?
A spectacular attack close to the election would help Bush.
.... thus ensuring four years of 'Bush arranged the Attacks'
.... and the success of Michael Moore's sequel 'Kelvin 1102'