Florida 2004 - And So It Begins

An article in the St Petersburg Times highlights what will certainly become an issue in November if the election is close.

State law sets a Sept. 1 deadline for the governor to certify a list of presidential electors for each party's candidates.

But Sept. 1 was also the day President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney were being nominated at their party' convention in New York. Consequently, some of their paperwork did not arrive at state elections headquarters until Sept. 2, a day after Gov. Jeb Bush certified the candidates for president.

As seems to be the case with Florida election law, there seems to be some ambiguity as what exactly the law requires.

Spokeswoman Jenny Nash said Friday the law is clear: The deadline applies to the governor and the list of presidential electors, not to the candidates themselves. The list of Republican electors released by Hood's office does not show a time stamp indicating when the document was received by the state.

Democratic Party officials disagree about what the law requires, but have stated they will not contest the issue.

Florida Democratic Party chairman Scott Maddox said he knew the president's certificate of nomination did not reach the state until Sept. 2, but he said he decided not to make an issue of it.

"To keep an incumbent president off the ballot in a swing state the size of Florida because of a technicality, I just don't think would be right," Maddox said.

Forgive me for being skeptical, but I don't think this is an issue of right and wrong for the Democrats. I think this one comes down to understanding how bad pushing this issue before the election would make them look. Fighting to keep Bush off the ballot in Florida would have likely cost them so many votes across the country that Florida would not have mattered.

But if the election is close and Florida can tip the balance, you can bet the farm that this will form the basis for Kerry's challenge of the Florida vote.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 04:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment