New Jersey Senate Election Fiasco

[GT98]

Not sure if your keeping up with this one and for the reading pleasure of our Non-US residents..

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32368-2002Oct2.html

My feelings are this...yes the Repulcans have a legitment gripe if Democrats are playing fast and loose with the election rules since Torricelli stepped down on Monday and if the primary reason was because he was losing the election. But I'm also all for having at least 2 different choices on the election ballet from each major party. Any one else want to comment?

[Dr Mordrid]

My instincts say to let the replacement candidate on the ballot, but my intellect says;

1. The Democrats (and just about everyone else in the country) knew that Toricelli was a crook before they re-nominated him because of the Senate ethics committee report on him.

This is really nothing new for New Jersey politicians (now you know why they set The Sopranos in NJ), but you have to set a standard somewhere

2. State law says that a party has to change candidates no less than 51 days before the election unless said candidate dies during the campaign. Toricelli might be politically dead, but last I checked he was still sucking air.

3. Absentee ballots have already been sent out and returned. Under the Democrats plans these ballots would be discarded, disinfranchising the military on assignment and American nationals living overseas.

4. If this is allowed to happen BOTH parties will start changing candidates on the fly when their poll numbers are dropping. This would be an electoral nightmare, especially during national elections where the entire House of Representatives is up for election.

5. The whole idea of bringing in a ringer at the last minute just rubs me wrong, bigtime.

As such I think the Democrats need to get shot down when this hits the US Supreme Court. Most likely gounds would be the voting rights issues and the NJ Supreme Court seemingly changing the election laws on the fly. Shades of Florida in 2000.

Dr. Mordrid