For those who may not know, the late Terry Floyd was the city attorney at the time. While we may well change in the future to majority voting, I would not hold my breath waiting for the DOJ or the Secrtary of State to overturn the results of this last election if the above assertion proves to be true.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Now comes this from Jim Stein via Ed Clary via Charles Davis.
Click on image to enlarge
For those who may not know, the late Terry Floyd was the city attorney at the time. While we may well change in the future to majority voting, I would not hold my breath waiting for the DOJ or the Secrtary of State to overturn the results of this last election if the above assertion proves to be true.
For those who may not know, the late Terry Floyd was the city attorney at the time. While we may well change in the future to majority voting, I would not hold my breath waiting for the DOJ or the Secrtary of State to overturn the results of this last election if the above assertion proves to be true.
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8 comments:
I would think a federal judge would be happy to overturn the results if the change was not approved by the DOJ. I was ready for all to move on, but only if proper procedure was followed. If not, we must have runoffs.
In the highly unlikely event that DOJ did not approve the change and the courts threw out this past elction, we would no doubt have to do the whole thing over - not a run off based upon the results of the last election.
If they throw it out, all elections since 1996 would be unlawful. All past elected St. marys officials from that date would be bogus. What ewffect would that have on all contracts during tha period. No,I doubt the courts will overturn this last election.
Courts are exceedingly loathe to interfere in such matters after the fact. If it turns out they never approved the change, I believe the worst that will happen is that we will NOW have to submit it for approval.
Actually, this election may not be "after the fact" since the electees have not taken office. And, while some federal judges might be loath to throw this election out, some would might relish the opportunity. As is so often said, "stay tuned."
But is is after the election and the results being certified by the Probate Court. Wiht a litle over a month before the winners take office, what would they do: force the incumbents to remain in office until such time as we could get approval of majority voting all the way through the legislature and by the DOJ sniff test and hold an election? Not likely.
First, if our decision to elect by plurality was not approved by the DOJ, we should still be voting by
the prior majority method so no new approval would be needed. Second, don't assume that the court would not order the incumbents to remain in office until their replacements were lawfully elected. I don't see how they could do otherwise.
Assumimng for the moment that your prognostication is correct, what effect would that have upon the validity of all legislation passed and contracts entered into by all councils elected subsequent to the change (or non-change, as the case may be) in 1996? Do they all become null and void?
I believe that the courts would judge that all legislation passed and contracts entered into by all councils elected subsequent to the change would be valid because the city council members who took these actions were officially sworn in and so were legal members of council despite the fact that (assuming) their election was faulty.
It seems to me that plurality vs majority voting did not become an issue until this election because in past elections we seldom had more than 2 candidates for any one position. I do seem to remember that, when Gary Blount first ran for council, there were 3 candidates and we had a runoff vote. Does anyone know if my recollection is accurate and what the date was?
If they can't find documentation to support the election was legal. Why can't the City redo the election under the correct method, since the candidates have not been sworn in yet?
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