Postponing the Election? Can the President actually move the date? - Granite Grok

Postponing the Election? Can the President actually move the date?

Of course, all of the political junkies on both sides have been thinking “should the election be put off”?  Me?  No.  We’ve been embroiled in wars and we haven’t foregone national elections – while there has been loss of life (minimal, thank God!) and lots of physical destruction, it is confined to a handful of states.  And let’s be honest here – these states (e.g., NY, NJ, CT, DE) are solidly in the Obama camp – he will not lose them.

First off, I’m not sure that Obama WANTS to move the date – he’s losing ground.  Each day, he seems to be losing more and more of his “firewall” (states that he could count on as being the equivalent of a Major League Baseball “closer” – stop the competition from scoring any more runs and preserve a win).  Florida is gone, N. Carolina left a while ago, Ohio seems to be leaning Romney, and even Wisconsin and (now) Minnesota seem to be in play.

I found it highly amusing that Jay Carney, the President’s Press Sec., hasn’t a clue (“On AF1, Carney is asked if power is still out on Election Day, whether Obama has power to delay the election. “I don’t know,” he says.”) if Obama could arbitrarily move the date.  Do none of these yahoos in the Obama Administration ever read our foundational docs?

Article 2 Section 1 Paragraph 4 of the Constitution:

The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they give their Votes; which day shall be the same throughout the United States.

And yes, notice the term Electors – those actually involved in the Electoral College.  Personally, the day should stay put.  I also think that if you cannot vote on that day, then the only option is via absentee ballot as I am not a proponent of “early voting” (mostly from the aspect of cutting down any time in which voting mischief can be applied).  Sure, the States can set the technicalities concerning the when and how long (in terms of hours or early voting), and where along with operating procedures, but they cannot move the actual date.  I just wish it was that single date

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