[extropy-chat] Re: Politics: US talks of suspending elections

Harvey Newstrom mail at HarveyNewstrom.com
Mon Jul 12 19:48:11 UTC 2004


Samantha Atkins writes: 

> I am surprised this topic hasn't already come up here.   The US press is 
> full of stories about possibly suspending US presidential elections if 
> there is significant terrorism.   There are subtexts that they may be 
> suspended even if there is a "credible threat of terrorism".

What bothers me is that these people keep pointing to the Spanish elections 
as an example of what they want to avoid.  The Spanish elections were not 
interrupted.  They took place as planned.  However, there were terrorist 
attacks just before the election.  The populace voted out the pro-war 
factions and voted in the anti-war factions.  Pro-war conservatives claim 
that the terrorists scared the public into voting against the war.  Anti-war 
liberals claim the populace voted the way they wanted. 

This is what they want to avoid here.  If they feel like George Bush is 
going to be voted out of office because a large section of the electorate 
blames him for terrorism, they want the option to postpone the election 
until that groundswell has gone away.  Pay careful attention to the words 
when they say "cancel" the election rather than "retry" or "recover" the 
election. 

 --
Harvey Newstrom, CISSP, CISA, CISM, IAM, IBMCP, GSEC
<HarveyNewstrom.com> 





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