[on the way to the end of our democracy djf] Voting official seeks process for canceling Election Day over terrorism

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Brad Templeton <btm () templetons com>
Date: July 2, 2004 3:22:11 AM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: Re: [IP] Voting official seeks process for canceling Election 
Day over terrorism


Funny, people laughed at me when I pushed this idea after the
Spanish election.  Not just delaying the election, but also
putting an automatic sunset on any laws passed shortly after
terrorist attacks.

I have little doubt that this requires a constitutional
amendment, however.  The date of the election being set
in the constitution as it is, the party who feels put out
by the delay would have a pretty good constitutional case
over the matter.

In my blog entry on the matter...
    http://ideas.4brad.com/archives/000050.html

I proposed the amendment as follows:

This amendment would first set to declare a major violent event -- a
terrorist attack, or the start or major escalation of war hostilities
within the country. The supreme court would get to declare when such an
event had taken place.

Then the following rules would apply:

a) Should the event take place within one week of an election, said
election shall be delayed by 2 weeks, such delay to be done no more
than twice.

b) Any law passed by congress within 30 days of the event which
significantly relates to the event, including any law relating to
expansion of police or military powers shall remain in force for no more
than 6 months. After 5 months congress may elect to renew or redraft
the law.
------------------

Key is you need a formal system for declaring the event such as
the court.  My view is that you want to define it to make the events
quite rare.  In recent history, I would list Pearl Harbor, Death of JFK
and 9/11 as the only such events.  Possibly the killing of Dr. King
and the takeover of the Iranian Embassy, but probably not.

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