This is politics at its best and worst.  Deals have always been made,
political people have always accused of operating for the betterment of the
party affiliation.  No surprise.  Neither side has asked to count all the
ballots from ALL the Florida counties.  And while their at it they might as
well count all the votes again from ALL the states.  If a side needs more
votes well just go to Chicago.

-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Guymon [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, November 14, 2000 10:06 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Election Lessons


Interesting you should ask this question.  There were three election law
experts on NBC's Today Show this morning discussing this very
point.  Apparently there have been situations in the past where natural
disasters have delayed vote counts in Florida and the "deadline" has been
extended or ignored.  Interesting that a Republican Secretary of State
closely associated with the Bush camp is unwilling to extend the deadline
for certification in this case.

At 11:48 AM 11/14/00 +1100, you wrote:
> From CNN today
>                "Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris announced
> Monday she would
>                   enforce a Tuesday afternoon deadline for certifying the
>state's election results,
>                   despite manual recounts going on in four predominantly
>Democratic counties.
>                   Monday afternoon, Gore urged Americans to wait for those
>recounts to be
>                   completed. "
>Can someone tell me how results can be certified when the recount is still
>going on?
>How would this Florida law apply if some natural force  ( eg  hurricane )
>prevented counting being completed within the stated time?
>I am really interested in this. We don''t have any such legal time limits
>for certification - the vote is "declared"  when counting  is finished, and
>then any legal challenges can follow within whatever is the statutory time
>limit.
>Thanks for all the great information flowing out through ALSB.  Every so
>often the politicians- or the people- present us with some great teaching
>examples.
>
>Anne Maureen
>
>Anne Maureen Scarff
>University of Western Sydney, Nepean
>P.O. Box 10
>KINGSWOOD NSW 2747 AUSTRALIA


Paul D. Guymon


William Rainey Harper College
1200 West Algonquin Road
Palatine, IL 60067