Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green is ordering Haley Barbour’s illegal ballot to be recalled:
Judge Green’s ruling is that the Wicker, Musgrove race should be with the other senate race on the ballot. Meaning it will be just under the race for president.
And because sample ballots have already been sent out to county election commissioners, Judge Green says those ballots must be recalled and corrected as soon as possible.
Attorneys for Governor Haley Barbour and Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann are expected to appeal.
Knowing how perverse the state of justice is in the Mississippi Supreme Court, this victory could be short-lived. We’ll see.
can it be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court since this is a federal election?
Someone needs to take this case to federal court, and pray it lands on the docket of a Democratic appointee. Then again, the Fifth Circuit is dominated by Bush appointees. What a judicial banana republic.
The Tupelo Journal has posted a picture of Barbour’s ballot, and it is worth a look. Scroll to the bottom as the message discusses the order.
http://djournal9to5.files.word…
President (including all the third parties)
Senate-A
House
County election commissioner
School board and school board trustee
Supreme Court (by district)
Appeals Court (by district)
Special Senate-B
Special circuit court election (if the district has one)
So, the race is below at least seven other races. There may be others depending on the town/county, I am not positive.
The thinking is that Barbour is terrified of the prospect of huge black turnout and turnout among first time voters, and he will do anything, no matter how shameless to dilute the vote.
Speaking as a lawyer the general principle is that there has to be a federal issue to gain entry into the federal court. Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution gives the states the authority to determine the time, manner and place of selecing their federal representatives. The only way to really get into the federal courts is to claim that the ballot impugns the fairness of the election. It really becomes a voting rights act problem and we all know how Bush’s appointees like the Voting Rights act.
This is an excellent shot for democracy in Mississippi, forget about being excellent for Democrats first off. What this scoundrel Governor tried to do was reprehensible.
His strategy was basically to put that important race so far down the ballot, that after people get tired of voting for all the local races they’ll get frustrated and just stop at some point and go home.
Well, Governor Scumbag and the GOP down there can appeal all they want, but the fact is what they did was wrong and they should apologize not only to the Democrats, but to the people of Mississippi for trying to sham democracy like this.
Honestly, Haley, GO F YOURSELF