Word: stated
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Dates: during 2000-2000
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...votes 'had not been... regularly given.' The statute identifies other significant dates, specifying December 18 as 'the date electors shall meet and give their votes' and specifying 'the fourth Wednesday in December' - this year, December 27 - as the date on which Congress, if it has not received a State's electoral votes, shall request the state secretary of state to send a certified return immediately. But none of these dates has ultimate significance in light of Congress' detailed provisions for determining, on 'the sixth day of January,' the validity of electoral votes...
...That debacle led to the Electoral Count Law of 1887, by which southern Democrats made sure the Supreme Court would never again be able to meddle with their election as long as they got their state business done six days before the electoral college voted - the safe harbor. (Sure, this was a law designed by and for segregationists, but that doesn't make it any less lawful.) And 124 years later, the five Justices who risked politicizing the highest court in the land by effecting George W. Bush's inauguration knew from history that it could get a lot worse...
...would he think the Florida Supremes deserved to sail into that safe harbor? The state's high court had tried not once but twice to design a recount scheme that held up to equal protection provisions. Seven Justices said Saturday's count was a failure on those constitutional grounds. A third try might pass muster, it might not, but the way the Florida court had chewed up the past 35 days was certainly no reason to believe that Dec. 18 was any safer. And beyond that date lay constitutional madness not seen since, well...
...what's wrong with a Republican-dominated state legislature ending a contest that the courts had five weeks to settle and couldn't? These people were elected by Floridians; if Floridians don't like what their representatives did, they can fire them. (Heck, they've even got term limits down there.) The politicians, maligned as they are, are just the people the founding fathers had in mind to regulate American elections. Who better than elected officials? At least we don't have to wring our hands about how they've become politicized...
...this policy can be counterproductive. We're not going to collect all the money Putin hopes to collect. Countries such as Iran and Iraq won't pay cash up front; they'll probably barter oil, which will ultimately enrich privately owned oil companies in Russia, but not the state. So we won't get much, but we shall lose our hard-won relations with the normal parts of the world, and we'll find ourselves isolated along with Iraq, Iran and Libya. Putin's visit to Cuba is a part of this strategy...