Posted 9:13 PM by Robert

Political Science Exercise

Compare:

Some counties, such as Ramsey and Hennepin, have been mailing new absentee ballots all week. Others had refused, citing a state law that explicitly prohibits officials from mailing replacement ballots. That law makes no sense, argued all three parties in the case — Attorney General Mike Hatch, DFL counsel Alan Weinblatt, and GOP counsel Tony Trimble.

And contrast:

"It clearly opens up the potential for chaos and craziness,"said David Schultz, a professor at Hamline University in St. Paul, who has tossed out the syllabus for an election-law course he is teaching this semester, just as he did in the never-ending presidential contest in 2000. "I see a lot of potential for Bush vs. Gore in Florida reappearing in Minnesota."

I wonder why not one of the parties to the case before the Minnesota Supreme Court - Attorney General Mike Hatch, DFL counsel Alan Weinblatt, and GOP counsel Tony Trimble - thought the Minnesota legislature might have included the law that "makes no sense" to avoid some of that "potential for chaos and craziness." And not a single judge on the Minnesota Supreme Court seems to have been able to figure that out, either.

Are "chaos" and "craziness" words one likes to see associated with elections - especially an election of a United States Senator?