I caught this curious statement when I accidentally clicked on Fox News...

[KansDem]

Regarding the election next month for Foley's office:

Roth said Foley was never under the influence of alcohol while conducting business on Capitol Hill, but he could not explain his previous statement that Foley was intoxicated when he sent the messages.

The race for Foley's seat has been pushed into the national spotlight as Democrats seek a net gain of 15 Republican seats to retake power in the House. Foley was considered a shoo-in for re-election before the messages surfaced.

On Monday, state Republican Party leaders selected state Rep. Joe Negron to replace Foley as their candidate in the Nov. 7 election, but under state law, Foley's name cannot be removed from the ballot even though he has withdrawn. Votes for Foley will be tallied for Negron.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Dennis Hastert cast aside calls for his resignation Tuesday amid allegations from Democrats that Republicans knew of Foley's questionable communications months ago but failed to act.

KC Fox

Let me understand this: Repukes want ID for voting in the form of birth certificates and the like, thus making if more difficult for millions of Americans who don't have access to personal lawyers, business managers, safe deposit boxes or in-home safes to store their documents, to vote. I mean, do you know where your birth certificate is? However, instead of requiring Repubes to write in the name of "new" candidate Negron, they assume that if you vote for Foley (whose name cannot be taken off the ballot), you really meant Negron. How can this be? Wouldn't it be more accurate to count a vote for Foley as a vote for Foley, and a write-in vote for Negron to be a vote for Negron? Or is the Repuke party afraid Repubs would become confused?

Doesn't Florida allow for write-in candidates?

edited to change noun...

[Hugin]

1. You know, blocking the channel would reduce stress levels in your home.

It's easy!

[MrCoffee]

6. That's why i don't have cable. Makes my life much more enjoyable.

[Radical Activist]

2. they didn't do that for Wellstone-Mondale.

Anyone who voted absentee early for Wellstone didn't get their vote counted. That's how they stole that one.

[Straight Shooter]

3. They assume people who vote for Repubs are simply voting for the party.

Not the candidate. The party. But if you ask them, they'll say, "I'm just voting for the better person."

Yeah, right.

[Hugin]

4. True... It doesn't seem exactly legal to me.

Not at all...

Shouldn't they have to be bright enough to actually vote for their candidate?

[MADem]

5. They did the same thing with Mel Carnahan, in essence

People preferred a dead man (or the dead man's wife) to Ashcroft.

The reason they can do this is because it is the way the election law is written. And this rule was clarified by the DEMOCRATS and went to court, IIRC, when we had someone fall off a FL ballot for some reason and the GOP tried to prevent us from fielding another candidate in the same manner.

A lot of people just vote the ticket. They look for the D or the R and that's their choices. You ask people to write candidates in, and you have a problem with spelling, with proper name, and so on. The only way you can run a decent write in campaign is if you give people stickers to put on the ballot ahead of the election, and hope they remember to bring the thing to the polls...

[eleny]

7. Not intoxicated while voting but during his contacts with pages? Hmmm!

One of his IMs with a page was interrupted so he go and vote. So, he was either drinking while IMing and then voting or not.

[McCamy Taylor]

8. Lok at the bright side. We can say Repubs will vote for a pedophile.

[brg5001]

9. Florida law lets parties designate a new candidate in these cases

Here in Florida, when a candidate withdraws or dies after the ballots are prepared, the party is permitted to choose a "designee" to receive those votes. The Republicans chose Negron to receive any votes for Foley. Those rules predate the emergence of the modern Repukelican Party.

Let's hope that Democrat Tim Mahoney wins this one. As with many races, KKKarl Rove introduced all kinds of shadowy pictures and cheap horror-movie TV ads to scare voters into thinking that Mahoney was Satan's spawn or worse. If I were Mahoney, I would have just stood up and said, "Serves the bastards right!"

Brian G.
Delray Beach

[ComerPerro]

10. wow, apparently you can count who people "intended" to vote for in FL