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September 15, 2004

Bush Will Do Anything to Win

No, not that Bush. I refer to Jeb Bush, distinguished Governor of Florida, has been for the role of family scion. Ralph Nader cynically tried to revive the corpse that is the Reform Party as a shortcut to get on Florida's ballot -- he has not bothered to collect the 90,000 signatures necessary.

A state court judge ruled that Nader's ruse was just that and denied him ballot access. The ruling has been appealed, and the Secretary of State, under Jeb Bush's direction has ordered counties to add Nader to their ballots just in case, which is kind of like adding mint-chocolate chip ice cream to the ballot just in case the flavor collects 90,000 signatures between now and Friday or gets nominated by some party that existed 30 years ago but hasn't fielded a candidate since.

Now you may think this is no big deal, since it's likely the judge in the state court and then the Supreme Court will uphold the earlier ruling barring Nader from the ballot. And you would be right, except for the fact that the ballots will likely have already been printed, and I'm sure Jeb, having caused this affair, will say that due to the hurricane(s) they can't afford/don't have the time to reprint the ballots. So then Ralph's name will be on the ballot -- but his votes won't count. And knowing the general intelligence level of his supporters, I'm going to guess (and I presume Jeb already has) that they will vote for Nader instead of Kerry, even though the votes will be thrown out.

For all the talk among Republicans about strict constructionism and the rule of law during the Florida fiasco in 2000, this case provides a clear example to the ignorant that the Republicans don't really care about anything but winning. The rule of law is great when a narrow reading of it will help you win...it's not so convenient when all but the loosest interpretation won't.

Posted by Chris at September 15, 2004 09:24 AM

Comments

Man, that's bad. And they're using the hurricane as an excuse to do it.

I guess it's good to be the governor.

Well, if this goes throught it will be that much more rewarding when Kerry wins Florida.

Posted by: ajc [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 15, 2004 01:13 PM

Isn't this for absentee ballots that will be going out in the 1st week of October, NOT the regular ballot; whereby absentee voters are usually certain of their [blue or red] candidate not fishing for Nadar's?

Posted by: jimmy [TypeKey Profile Page] at September 16, 2004 05:26 PM

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