Delayed Elections?

July 12, 2004

Newsweek reports that Dept of Homeland Security sought a legal opinion about whether the federal elections could be postponed in the event of a major terrorist incident on election day: Exclusive: Election Day Worries

American counterterrorism officials, citing what they call "alarming" intelligence about a possible Qaeda strike inside the United States this fall, are reviewing a proposal that could allow for the postponement of the November presidential election in the event of such an attack, NEWSWEEK has learned.

Yale LS professor Jack Balkin examines the Constitutional limitations on postponing the election and notes:

There is an enormous temptation for the Executive to overstate the danger in order to keep itself in power and bolster its chances in a postponed election. To be sure, there is also a danger of self-dealing in Congress. Nevertheless, that danger is mitigated by the fact that Congress is not unitary in the same way that the Executive is. If Congress were to consider such legislation, even in an emergency, the need to form a bipartisan consensus would be very strong, and this would help ensure that this very difficult decision was made for the right reasons.

U. Chicago Poli.Sci. professor Daniel Drezner has a more gut-level response: This officially scares the s*** out of me

What does it say that three years after 9/11, the Bush administration's counterterrorism and homeland defense policies are so weak that they have to contemplate changing the national election date rather than relying in our supposedly enhanced defences?

Posted by Andrew Raff at July 12, 2004 2:17 PM