Presidential Election Cases
George W. Bush, et al. v. Albert Gore, Jr., et al.
The
State of Alabama
Fundamental fairness requires election officials to refrain from changing the rules for
counting ballots after an election to alter the outcome. Fundamental fairness also
requires each State to establish - before an election - objective and meaningful standards
for counting ballots and adhere to those standards after the election to protect the First
and Fourteenth Amendment rights of both voters and candidates. Adherence to these
guarantees of fundamental fairness requires special deference to the authority of
legislatures to establish rules for counting votes before an election rather than allowing
courts retroactively to create rules for resolving post-election disputes.
William H. Haynes, et al.
Having rewritten the statutory deadlines in its first decision, and having failed as yet
to comply with this Court’s remand order in Bush, the court below promulgated a
judge-made amendment to its judge-made deadline. It then usurped the remedial authority
that the statute gives solely to the trial court and devised a remedy inconsistent with
the statutory recount provisions and totally at odds with the statutory respect for the
decisions of local canvassing boards. To make matters worse, the court below applied this
new legislative scheme of its own design retroactively in contravention of 3 U.S.C. § 5.
