WASHINGTON — When Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge issued a grainy warning that the coming presidential election could be the target of a large-scale attack by Al Qaeda, the advisory set off a storm of political response.
Some Democrats saw a partisan motive in Ridge's timing -- two days after their party's presumed presidential nominee, Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, picked Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina as his running mate. "They're instilling uncertainty into the electoral process," charged House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. "That is not the American way."
Bush administration officials quickly denied any plans to postpone the election beyond Nov. 2.
But almost no one addressed the larger question: What could federal, state and local authorities do to protect the democratic process from terrorists? Indeed, what form might attacks on a nationwide election take?
Part of the reason no one in government has offered answers to those questions is that many of the responsible officials in Congress and the administration seem afraid even to open a discussion on the subject. Partisan mistrust is running too high, they say.
"Today, we are not prepared," said DeForest B. Soaries Jr., chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. "The two threats to our being prepared are these: fear that discussing the issue is a de facto invitation to a terrorist event, and that the issue has been so politicized that we can't even have a rational conversation about it."
Reaction to the subject is visceral, especially when the talk is of postponing a vote.
"I don't think that even merits discussion," said Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio). "It's one of the most controversial subjects one could bring up because it starts to connote an idea of one-person martial law. Dictators postpone elections."
Although Congress sets the date for federal elections, the responsibility for carrying them out is shared by states and localities. The president and his administration have no legal authority to postpone or reschedule federal elections. Only Congress can do that.
The election commission Soaries heads, which was recently created largely in response to the vote tally debacle in Florida in 2000, is charged with providing technical aid to states and localities in administering federal elections.
