Only Cowards Cancel Elections
TruthOut.org
by William Rivers Pitt
A number
of trial balloons have been floated in recent days, from Homeland
Security Director Tom Ridge specifically, about canceling or postponing
the national election because of a terrorist attack. DeForest B.
Soaries Jr., the Bush-appointed chairman of the newly minted U.S.
Election Assistance Commission, apparently got the ball rolling with
Ridge by writing a letter to him. In it, he bade Ridge ask Congress for
the power to put off the November election in the event of an attack.
There
are wild cards shuffled all through this deck. The simple fact,
however, is that no national election has ever been cancelled in all of
American history. This is not a streak to be broken under any
circumstances. In the darkest hours of the Civil War, when the
continued existence of the nation was gravely in doubt, Abraham Lincoln
wrote, “We can not have free government without elections; and if the
rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election it
might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.”
Whatever
happens, come hell or high water, let us resolve to have an election in
November. Voting is the seedcorn act of democracy. Allowing anyone,
under any circumstances, to deflect or disrupt the basic, sacred
process of this republic would be an admission of absolute, final
defeat.
(more)
Junta takes steps to cancel US election
Axis of Logic
The
request by Bush administration officials for a detailed analysis of the
legal steps that would be necessary to postpone the 2004 election
represents an implicit threat to abrogate the US Constitution, dispense
with democratic rights, and establish a dictatorship based on the
military and police. This is the desperate action of a deeply
discredited and unpopular regime that fears, not merely electoral
defeat, but an explosion of social and political unrest in the United
States.
The
request was made public Sunday by Newsweek magazine, which reported
that three federal agencies are already involved: the newly established
Election Assistance Commission, which first suggested the possibility,
the Department of Homeland Security, which has been issuing repeated
but entirely unsubstantiated warnings about election-related terrorist
threats, and the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which is
now studying the legal and constitutional issues at the request of
Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge.
The
chairman of the Election Assistance Commission, DeForest Soaries, sent
a letter to the Republican and Democratic leaders of both houses of
Congress Monday, pointing to the absence of any legal or constitutional
provision for postponing a national election. “There does not appear to
be a clear process in place to suspend or reschedule voting during an
election if there is a major terrorist attack,” he wrote.
(more)
TAKE ACTION NOW!
Contact
your U.S. Senators and Representative immediately and make sure they
know you are watching this issue closely. Demand that you expect nothing less than full elections held on time.
To write Senator Tom Harkin, go here:
http://harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm
http://grassley.senate.gov/webform.htm
To write to your Representative in the U.S. House, go here:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Thank you.
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