Seems kinda quick dont ya think? Read below....
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Officials discuss how to delay Election Day
Talks stem from recent fears of **** attack timed to vote
Monday, July 12, 2004 Posted: 1925 GMT (0325 HKT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. officials have discussed the idea of postponing Election Day in the event of a ****attack on or about that day, a Homeland Security Department spokesman said Sunday.
The department has referred questions about the matter to the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel, said a spokesman, confirming a report in this week's editions of Newsweek magazine.
Newsweek said the discussions about whether the November 2 election could be postponed started with a recent letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge from DeForest Soaries Jr., chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
The commission was set up after the disputed 2000 presidential vote to help states deal with logistical problems in their elections.
Soaries, who was appointed by President Bush, is a former New Jersey secretary of state and senior pastor of the 7,000-member First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset.
Newsweek reported that Soaries expressed concern that no federal agency had the authority to postpone an election and asked Ridge to ask Congress to give his commission such power.
Ridge warned Thursday that **** terrorists were planning a large-scale attack on the United States "in an effort to disrupt the democratic process." (Full story)
Ridge said he had no specific or credible information about threats to the political conventions. The four-day Democratic convention kicks off July 26 in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Republican National Convention begins August 30 in New York City.
Ridge also said the nation's color-coded ****threat level would remain at yellow, or elevated.
Democratic Rep. Jane Harman of California, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that she believes planning for the possibility of postponing Election Day is "excessive, based on what we know."
"Six days ago, the leadership of the House and Senate intelligence committees and leadership of the House and Senate were briefed on these so-called new threats," Harman said on CNN's "Late Edition."
"They are more chatter about old threats, which were the subject of a press conference by Attorney General [John] Ashcroft and [FBI] Director [Robert] Mueller six weeks ago.
"[Ridge] sounded more like an interior decorator talking about what more we can do under the shade of yellow," she said.
The news that such discussions have taken place raised other eyebrows on Capitol Hill as well.
"I don't think there's an argument that can be made, for the first time in our history, to delay an election," said Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, a member of the Intelligence Committee.
"We hold elections in the middle of war, in the middle of earthquakes, in the middle of whatever it takes. The election is a statutory election. It should go ahead, on schedule, and we should not change it."
But the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Christopher Cox of California, said on "Late Edition" that he sees Ridge's request as part of a prudent effort to plan for "doomsday scenarios."
"We don't have any intelligence to suggest that it is going to happen, but we're preparing for all of these contingencies now," Cox said.
Noting that New York election officials were able to postpone their September 11, 2001, primary election after terrorists slammed hijacked planes into the World Trade Center, Cox said "there isn't any body that has that authority to do that for federal elections."
"So what Secretary Ridge has asked the Justice Department to do is, 'Give me a legal memo, tell me what will be necessary. Do we need to go to Congress and get legislation?' "
What has Homeland Security officials worried is that terrorists could attempt to disrupt the election in the same way that train bombings in Madrid created unrest three days before the Spanish general election, the Homeland Security spokesman said.
Although there is no evidence that the bombings influenced the March 11 vote, socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero unseated Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, whose center-right government supported the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
The country's new government then pulled Spanish troops from Iraq.
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US 'may delay vote if attacked'
The Bush administration is reported to be investigating the possibility of postponing the presidential election in the event of a **** attack.
US counter-**** officials are examining what steps would be needed to permit a delay, Newsweek reports.
Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge last week warned **** was planning to attack the US to disrupt the poll but conceded he had no precise information.
A senior Democrat in Congress has said talk of postponement is "excessive".
Doomsday scenarios
In its latest edition, Newsweek reports that Mr Ridge has asked the Justice Department to examine what legal steps would be needed to permit the postponement of the 2 November election.
This follows a letter from the chairman of the new Election Assistance Commission, DeForest Soaries, who urged Mr Ridge to seek emergency legislation from Congress that would allow his agency to reschedule the vote in the event of an attack.
Mr Soaries noted that while New York's board of elections suspended primary elections on 11 September 2001, "the federal government has no agency that has the statutory authority to cancel and reschedule a federal election."
Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse told Newsweek, "We are reviewing the issue to determine what steps need to be taken to secure the election."
Republican Representative Christopher Cox, who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, told CNN that it was prudent to prepare for a postponement.
"These are doomsday scenarios. We don't have any intelligence to suggest that it is going to happen, but we're preparing for all of these contingencies now."
Old information
But Jane Harman, the senior Democrat on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said proposing a postponement would be "excessive based on what we know".
She also criticised Mr Ridge's suggestion that **** was planning to disrupt the election, saying the warning was based on old information.
The BBC's Justin Webb in Washington says the Democrats' unspoken fear is that the White House will play on the nerves of Americans as the election nears, hoping to gain support from a nation fearful of any change in course.
It is a difficult strategy for the Democrats to counter.
If they appeared complacent and terrorists did strike, they would be politically destroyed, he says.
No US presidential election has ever been postponed.
Abraham Lincoln was urged by some aides to suspend the election of 1864 - during the US Civil War - but despite the expectation that he would lose, he refused.
"The election is a necessity," Lincoln said. "We cannot have a free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forgo, or postpone, a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered us."
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Sounds like Bush mite be plotting to steal the election again....if there is an election VOTE KERRY!!!!!!!!!!!!
it's not gettin delayed, and if an attack happens, it would've been done or it would be done already... i'ma believe it when i see it... there's no delay, it's a crock
Did anybody not read what Spectre and Sowthwest said? These cats are on point with the info and the big picture to what is going on.
I'm surprised you knew that all of our presidents are members of secret organizations like the Freemasons and the Skull and Bones. All the presidents are related in some way as well. I just found out that Kerry is related to the Kennedy's.
So obviously this election is not going to be clean. It's right in our faces they are trying to slip something in right now. Why would they have a clue on when the next ****attack would be.
Our government has been lying to us forever. This is crazy I'm out. America is so funny man b'cuz they are playing with people's minds/lives for no reason.
What is the point for all this War in Iraq, ****, fishy elections? They are taking away our privacy, and freedom slowly but surely. They already have us tracked with the GPS chips in the cellphones. You can't go anywhere without bocou ID. Social Security translates to a bar code. In the future the US is going to surrender all power to the UN and Americans are going to feel like ****.
