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

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Dan Clemmensen <dgc at cox.net> wrote:
> Recall my third reaction: what should we do if
> someone nukes Washington 
> on election day? As horrible as it sounds, our
> society really does need 
> to answer this question.

Umm...celebrate?  ;)

Just kidding.  Among many other negative things (I've
been to DC myself; it's a good city with good
residents, whatever one has to say about its primary
industry), this would be enough to delay the election.

Although...what would happen if both Bush and Kerry
were in town when it was nuked?  (They'll probably be
back home voting for at least part of the day, but jet
trips to DC don't take 24 hours.)  Technically, the
election should resume as soon as possible - and
since neither the Democratic nor the Republican
parties are official parts of government, their sudden
lack of candidates would have no legal bearing on how
soon those elections could take place.  There would be
legal challenges for sure, but the letter of the law
would throw the presidency open to third parties only
in such a scenario (unless either major party managed
to throw primaries together or otherwise agree on a
new nominee, say the second/third place winner from
this spring's primaries, in record time - which one or
the other might well do if it was opportunistic and
resourceful).