Will the November election ever end? (North Carolina)

North Carolina Republican Senate Caucus ^ | 2/20/2005 | Senator Ham Horton

[Prospero]

Winston-Salem – Feb. 16 Senator Ham Horton (R-Forsyth) - Commentary

We still don't have a Superintendent of Public Instruction. June Atkinson, the Democrat candidate, won a clear majority.  But some 11,310 votes were cast out-of-precinct.

The case went to court and the court found that the law was clear: a voter must vote in his own precinct.   So the 11,310 votes were thrown out and the State Board of Elections was ordered to declare a winner without considering these votes. 

Enter the Democrat majority in the State Senate, which has introduced Senate Bill 82, the effect of which would be to take jurisdiction of contested elections away from the Courts and vest it in the General Assembly with its clear Democrat majority to decide. The idea of a fair, dispassionate hearing in the courts for election disputes is summarily discarded with the words, "There is no review in the General Court of Justice."

In short, SB 82 would mean that any Democrat could contest losing an election with the assurance that the General Assembly would award him the seat anyway.

And, incredibly, SB 82 would apply retroactively  to the 2004 election. Talk about changing the rules after the game is over!

[Prospero]

Time Travel invented in North Carolina's legislature. Who'd a thought it?

[patton]

"No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed."

[John Galt's cousin]

Re: "No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed."

On all fours.

that sounds familiar!

Isn't that something from a document that used to be talked about in high school and which has something to do with the fundamental agreement of the People of this country about how they would govern themselves?

[\disgust with education system - for now]

[patton]

I think so - but the DEA burned it, because it was written on hemp paper.

So you will have to rely on secondary sources.

[El Oviedo]

Are these guys from the Ukraine?

[momincombatboots]

Sigh... I am a North Carolinian now, but sometimes I cringe at the state of affairs here. To bad the God- fearing majority of people here will not do anything about it.

[GeorgeW23225]

I imagine Jesse Jackson is outraged....NOT

[Kuksool]

Strange, the RATS always regarded the courts to be the final authority on all tings. Oh yeah that right, the NC Supreme Court is pack with Republicans.

[Kuksool]

I'd like to know how a "contested election" is defined. If a RAT loses , 52-48, then does that qualify as a contested election?

The bill is unneccessay for the Edcuation Superintendant race. The RAT has alawys lead when the votes were counted. The so-called conservative RATS are just trying to do whatever they can to maintain their power.

[smonk]

I would actually prefer for this sort of thing to be decided in a democratically elected body than in the courts.

[Prospero]

What sort of thing is that? The law? Actually, no one is suggesting the Legislature hasn't the right to make the law, for the future, within the context of the Constitution. What is at issue here is whether they can change the rules for the past, to change the outcome of an election in the past.

This ex post facto, after the fact, kind of thing is no better than changing the rules for the Superbowl in the past to call for 8 yard first downs, reversing the result. The courts have long determined that this can't be done.

As far as contested elections in the future, this proposal doesn't even define what that means, which means anytime a loser files an election, and his Party controls the legislaure, the vote can be overturned.

[Prospero]

Unlike the Supreme Court, the Senate Democrat's bill makes no attempt to define "a contested election," and a few other important matters left for them to determine in Article VI, Section 5 of the NC Constitution.