<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>On Nov 7, 2008, at 9:22 PM, Chris Benham wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Lucida Bright'; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Kevin Venzke wrote (Fri.Nov.7):</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Hi,<br><br>--- En date de : Ven 7.11.08, Markus Schulze <<a href="http://lists.electorama.com/listinfo.cgi/election-methods-electorama.com"><font color="#810081">markus.schulze at alumni.tu-berlin.de</font></a>> a écrit :<br>><i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Second: It makes it possible that the elections<br></i>><i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>are run by the governments of the individual<br></i>><i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>states and don't have to be run by the central<br></i>><i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>government.<br></i><br>I especially agree with this second point, or at least that it has been<br>a good thing that the elections have not been conducted by a single<br>authority.<br><br>It's possible to imagine a different American history, if the federal<br>government had been in a position to cancel or postpone or manipulate the<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br>presidential election.</div></div></div></span></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Presumably, under that scenario, 50 states could do that to state elections. Not to mention a couple of dozen European democracies. </div><div><br></div><div>But which country has had its federal supreme court short-circuit a national election?</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Lucida Bright'; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div><div style="font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 12pt; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br><br>Kevin Venzke</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Kevin,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Why does having elections for national office run by a "central authority"</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">like a federal electoral commission necessarily mean that the "federal<br>government" (presumably you refer here to partisan office-holders with</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">a stake in the election outcome) would have the power to "cancel or</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">postpone or manipulate" the presidential election?</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Can you please support your point by comparing the US with other</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">First World countries, perhaps just focussing on the last few decades?</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br>Chris Benham<br></div></div><br><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align: center; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Arial" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><hr align="center" size="1" width="100%"></span></font></div><p class="MsoNormal"><img id="_x0000_i1026" src="http://l.yimg.com/au.yimg.com/i/mktg/images/heartcircle(25x25).jpg" align="absbottom" border="0" height="25" hspace="4" width="25"><font face="Arial" size="2">Search 1000's of available singles in your area at the new Yahoo!7 Dating.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; "><a href="http://au.rd.yahoo.com/dating/mail/tagline2/*http://au.dating.yahoo.com/?cid=53151&pid=1012" target="_new"><b><span lang="NO-BOK" style="font-weight: bold; "></span></b><span lang="NO-BOK">Get Started.</span></a></span></font><span lang="NO-BOK"><o:p></o:p></span></p>----<br>Election-Methods mailing list - see<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://electorama.com/em">http://electorama.com/em</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>for list info<br></div></span></blockquote></div><br><div><br></div></body></html>