Wait a second. Arent

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Wait a second. Aren’t the Republicans hoisting themselves on their own petard?

One of the key Republican arguments currently before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and the US Supreme Court is that the current recount is ‘standardless’ and thus a violation of both the equal protection and due process guarantees of the 14th Amendment. The argument here is that the Florida Supreme Court set no guidelines for what constitutes voter intent. And thus each county can arrive at rules at their own discretion.

The Court’s order stated:

In tabulating the ballots and in making a determination of what is a “legal” vote, the standards to be employed is that established by the Legislature in our election code which is that the vote shall be counted as a “legal” vote if there is “clear indication of the intent of the voter.”

On the face of it, the Republican argument seems to have at least an arguable merit. This is a very ambiguous standard.

But the whole weight of the Republican claim across the board is that the state legislature has a basically absolute and unreviewable power to make the rules for the election. So how can the federal courts gainsay the (admittedly problematic) standard promulgated explicitly by the state legislature?

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