-Caveat Lector-
PALM BEACHERS HAVE GOOD CASE: LAW PROFS
New York Post-Friday, November 10, 2000
By ANDY GELLER
A challenge to the Palm Beach County election results could have
solid legal grounds, experts said yesterday.
"The evidence of voter confusion is very strong," said Terry
Smith, an associate professor at Fordham Law School, adding,
"Legally, [the Gore campaign] has a good case."
Palm Beach voters, many of whom maintain they mistakenly voted
for Pat Buchanan, could argue that the confusing ballot design
deprived them of their constitutional rights.
Experts say Florida election law is so broad that it allows
elections to be challenged if there is evidence that the wrong
person received the most votes.
Elizabeth Garrett, a University of Chicago Law School professor,
said Palm Beach County voters don't have to establish that the
confusion was intentional:
"People can vote wrong all the time. But the question here was
whether this was systematic, and it appears that it was. It looks
like something was seriously wrong."
Smith said the courts have ruled that voting is a fundamental
right that is a precondition to all other liberties.
"You can't have a fundamental right that can't be exercised,"
Smith said. "A fundamental right is hollow if the ballot is
arranged in such a way that you can't tell who you're voting
for."
Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe said the best
solution "is to redo the election in the precincts where the
ballots were confusing. A new election could be held very quickly
if the court acts quickly."
If the Palm Beach challenge - which could eventually wind up
before the U.S. Supreme Court - is successful, it could set a
precedent for losing candidates around the country. Experts say
no balloting anywhere is 100 percent perfect.
Meanwhile, the Florida mess has revived calls for abolishing the
Electoral College, a move supported by Eugene Volokh, a UCLA Law
School professor who clerked for Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day
O'Connor. "The electoral system is so weird, so divorced from
reality, that it doesn't have credibility with the public. Most
people would find the proportional system of election more
credible," he said.
David Rudenstine, a visiting scholar at Princeton, disagreed,
saying abolition of the Electoral College might encourage
politicians to ignore smaller states.
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