Only Cowards Cancel Elections

TruthOut.org
by William Rivers Pitt

A number of trial balloons have been floated in recent days, from Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge specifically, about canceling or postponing the national election because of a terrorist attack. DeForest B. Soaries Jr., the Bush-appointed chairman of the newly minted U.S. Election Assistance Commission, apparently got the ball rolling with Ridge by writing a letter to him. In it, he bade Ridge ask Congress for the power to put off the November election in the event of an attack.

There are wild cards shuffled all through this deck. The simple fact, however, is that no national election has ever been cancelled in all of American history. This is not a streak to be broken under any circumstances. In the darkest hours of the Civil War, when the continued existence of the nation was gravely in doubt, Abraham Lincoln wrote, "We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us."

Whatever happens, come hell or high water, let us resolve to have an election in November. Voting is the seedcorn act of democracy. Allowing anyone, under any circumstances, to deflect or disrupt the basic, sacred process of this republic would be an admission of absolute, final defeat.

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Junta takes steps to cancel US election

Axis of Logic

The request by Bush administration officials for a detailed analysis of the legal steps that would be necessary to postpone the 2004 election represents an implicit threat to abrogate the US Constitution, dispense with democratic rights, and establish a dictatorship based on the military and police. This is the desperate action of a deeply discredited and unpopular regime that fears, not merely electoral defeat, but an explosion of social and political unrest in the United States.

The request was made public Sunday by Newsweek magazine, which reported that three federal agencies are already involved: the newly established Election Assistance Commission, which first suggested the possibility, the Department of Homeland Security, which has been issuing repeated but entirely unsubstantiated warnings about election-related terrorist threats, and the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which is now studying the legal and constitutional issues at the request of Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge.

The chairman of the Election Assistance Commission, DeForest Soaries, sent a letter to the Republican and Democratic leaders of both houses of Congress Monday, pointing to the absence of any legal or constitutional provision for postponing a national election. “There does not appear to be a clear process in place to suspend or reschedule voting during an election if there is a major terrorist attack,” he wrote.

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TAKE ACTION NOW!
 
Contact your U.S. Senators and Representative immediately and make sure they know you are watching this issue closely.  Demand that you expect nothing less than full elections held on time.

To write Senator Tom Harkin, go here:

http://harkin.senate.gov/contact/contact.cfm


To write Senator Chuck “I crafted tax cuts for the wealthy“ Grassley, go here:

http://grassley.senate.gov/webform.htm


To write to your Representative in the U.S. House, go here:
 
http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Thank you.