Just four days after a Florida judge ruled that Ralph Nader’s name must be left off the state’s presidential ballot, the Florida’s election chief has ordered Nader onto the ballot anyway. It’s as if the state was concerned that it wasn’t a big enough embarrassment to democracy, so it wanted to ratchet things up a bit.
In a memo to Florida’s 67 county election supervisors, state election director Dawn Roberts said uncertainty caused by Hurricane Ivan, which could hit parts of the state this week, forced her to act.
So a Republican state official, who works for the president’s brother, decided to ignore a court order and direct election supervisors to put an ineligible candidate on the ballot. When asked for explanation, she exploited a hurricane threat for a storm that does not appear poised to significantly affect the state.
Only in Florida.
Naturally, state Dems were not amused.
The move infuriated Democrats, who accused Hood, an appointee of Gov. Jeb Bush, of partisan politicking. Democrats have vowed to scrutinize Nader’s bid for a spot on the ballot in the largest of the swing states, and the judge last week agreed with Democrats that the Reform Party now backing Nader is no longer a legitimate entity.
“Jeb Bush has turned the elections office into a campaign and legal arm of the Republican Party and unabashedly so,” said Florida Democratic Party Chairman Scott Maddox, who immediately appealed Hood’s action. “They’re defying the wishes of a circuit court judge and putting Ralph Nader on the ballot.”
I think he meant that Jeb is turning the state elections office into a Bush campaign arm again. I’m sure it was just an oversight.
Next stop: the state Supreme Court.
One thing was certain Monday: Florida’s highest court will enter the fray. The Supreme Court said in an order Monday night that the case involves “matters of great public importance.”