As I write this, residents of the Mid-Atlantic states are being warned to prepare themselves for a long-lasting power outage because of Hurricane Sandy, billed as “the perfect storm” and the storm of the century. When Hurricane Irene roared through New England last year, many residents were still without power after a week. And Hurricane Irene was a relatively weak Category 1 hurricane.
The Philadelphia Inquirer is describing Hurricane Sandy as a historic and catastrophic storm. The Wilmington News Journal’s banner headline reads, “Monster threatening to slam state head-on.”
So what happens if the resulting power outages last beyond Election Day, Nov. 6? Delaware has electronic voting. All voting machines are electronic. Even in states with mechanical voting machines, power outages and the other effects of the storm may impede voting.
Can states extend voting for a few more days, or designate a different day as Election Day? That might seem reasonable, but what if lawsuits are filed alleging that a particular extension is illegal and intended to favor one party?
What if some voters are able to vote on Nov. 6, but others are not? Will lawsuits be filed attempting to end voting as originally scheduled to preserve a temporary lead for one party or candidate?
If some states are unable to conduct or complete elections on Nov. 6, and become enmeshed in lawsuits, how will that affect the outcome of local elections and the contest for the presidency? The Mid-Atlantic states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, are all predicted to be Obama states.
Even without Hurricane Sandy, the potential for lawsuit Armageddon was already high because of the closeness of the race electorally and in multiple swing states. I’ve been warning that because the presidential race seems so close, we may end up experiencing a re-play of the 2000 Florida recount battle, but on a larger scale, in multiple states, that could last as long, or even longer than the 2000 litigation.
Both the Romney and Obama campaigns have studied and learned from what happened in 2000. Both campaigns have lawyers ready in every state to file lawsuits demanding recounts and citing voting irregularities if a close vote turns against them.
The stakes are as high as can be for both campaigns. Neither has fought as long and as hard as they have, just to raise the white flag of surrender when confronted with close electoral results that hinge on contestable vote counts or procedures.
And that was true before Hurricane Sandy. So brace yourselves. It’s going to be a bumpy ride! And maybe in more ways than one!
Copyright 2012 Jan Ting, a professor of law at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law and a former Assistant Commissioner for Refugees, Asylum and Parole, Immigration and Naturalization Service, U.S. Department of Justice. Jan can be reached at janting@temple.edu.
Accuracy posted at 1:41 pm on Wed, Oct 31, 2012.
Jan Ting wrote: “Both the Romney and Obama campaigns have studied and learned from what happened in 2000. Both campaigns have lawyers ready in every state to file lawsuits demanding recounts and citing voting irregularities if a close vote turns against them.”
Lawyers ready . . . in preparation for the upcoming election battlegrounds.
With the unimaginable damage of Hurricane Sandy, nearly 8 million people in the Mid-Atlantic States are without power and damage estimates range as high as $50 billion. Even in Cleveland, hundreds of miles away from New York and New Jersey, residents are cleaning up from Hurricane Sandy.
“Could Hurricane Sandy wreak havoc on Election Day?” President Obama and Mitt Romney don’t think so.
After canceling campaign events because of the storm, both Obama and Romney are returning to the campaign trails. And even with more than 8 million people without power, political television ads are still running across the country.
Mij14I posted at 8:49 am on Wed, Oct 31, 2012.
By the looks of the brief resume of the author of this OPINION peice, Mr. Ting is yet another parasite living off of an earmark of the Federal Budget. Commissioner of refugees, asylum and parole. (What the *&%^ is that all about?) Immigration and naturalization. . . those of us residing here in Arizona know what they are all about as lawyers. Do they? Weren't we suppose to have immigration reform come about the last four years? What we got was SB1070 and a US President filing suit against us. To sum it up, Jan Ting is another Radical Liberal of hysterical nature.
Why is ABC15.com and the East Valley Tribune making an election issue out of a weather disaster? By all indicators the polls in all the states in the path of Hurricane Sandy will be operational by next Tuesday. CBS This Morning, Fox News and ABC News have attributed Emergency Management directors of various states and spokes people for various electrical utilities serving the affected states power will completely restored in four days. So if it takes five days that makes the November 6th deadline. The polls won't be as comfortable as they were two or four years ago, but they'll be functional. Many of the states affected have early voting and several votes have already been cast.
People wise up. We don't need a wash out of a lawyer like Jan Ting creating havoc where there need not be any to enjoy his fifteen minutes of fame. I'm disappointed in the East Valley Tribune for insulting the intelligence of it readers by even running this. By all indications he's unhappy teaching law at Temple University so he's trying to drum up some private work by manufacturing law suits regarding elections, A classy way of chasing ambulances.
The Constitution gives Congress the power to set election day. Congress has set election day as the first Tuesday after the first Monday of November. It doesn't take a PhD in History to know the early presidential elections in the U S were conducted without the convenience of electricity.