Well, Eugene Volokh links to a blog that asks 4 good questions about election postponement. I tend to agree with this, as I’ve written in the comments to the original post here. Essentially, I am OK with the idea of planning for this eventuality because I can see it being necessary. I also agree that the power to postpone the election should not rest solely with the executive because the election directly affects that office. It would be the shortest path to dictatorship in a system that is otherwise very well set up to remain far, far away from it.
I don’t necessarily agree that the whole nationwide election should be postponed, however. While I can understand that concern of turnout and votes being affected by the rest of the country’s votes, I tend to think that it’s OK for that to happen. What if the voters in Florida had known it was that close? More voters would’ve come out for both sides and the percentages, I believe, would’ve remained the same. The point about Nader voters switching to Gore is relevant only because the vote in Florida was so damn close (something that the Florida voters wouldn’t know about their own state). This argument still makes me feel like California is a crap shoot since they know what the entire east coast has voted by 3 or 4 PM their time.






October 13th, 2004 at 12:42 pm
What are your thoughts on run-off balloting?
For those who don’t know what run-off balloting is… simply stated, you would rank the candidates by order or preference 1-3, 1-5, 1-8… depends on the number of candidates…. If there is no clear winner ( i think they use attained 50.1% of the vote as the number) then the run-off begins…
You take all the candidates totals and whoever got the least amount of votes would be eliminated at the #2 name on those ballots would supercede the eliminated individual. Therefore, no votes are “wasted” and by the end of the process a clear winner should be selected.
Just wondering your thoughts are on this subject…
October 13th, 2004 at 12:42 pm
Sorry… cleared out my cookies this morning and it eliminated my name
October 13th, 2004 at 12:43 pm
and that was supposed to be 50%+1….not 50.1%