Delete comment from: Captain Capitalism
People DO NOT have a right to vote.
The 15th, 19th and 26th Amendments prohibit discrimination in voting on the basis of race, sex and age respectively, but they do not affirmatively guarantee the right to vote. Voting in America is essentially a 10th Amendment issue - "states' rights."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Bush v. Gore (2000) that "the individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States." In other words, Florida's state right to oversee the election took precedent over counting every individual vote - or, legally, states' rights triumphed over individual rights.
In essence the Court said, since there is no affirmative right to vote in the Constitution, what does the Florida state statute say? It said Katherine Harris (the Secretary of State; and co-chair of the Bush Campaign) is in charge of the election and, according to Florida law all the votes must be counted by midnight, December 12. Since the Court decision came down at 10 pm on December 12, she said, in essence, if you can't count all the votes in the next two hours George Bush is the President.
Nov 26, 2008, 2:38:00 PM
Posted to And These People Have the Right to Vote