Home > Exclusive: Election Day Worries
By Michael Isikoff
July 19 issue - American counterterrorism officials,
citing what they call "alarming" intelligence about a
possible Qaeda strike inside the United States this
fall, are reviewing a proposal that could allow for the
postponement of the November presidential election in
the event of such an attack, NEWSWEEK has learned.
The prospect that Al Qaeda might seek to disrupt the
U.S. election was a major factor behind last week’s
terror warning by Homeland Security Secretary Tom
Ridge. Ridge and other counterterrorism officials
concede they have no intel about any specific plots.
But the success of March’s Madrid railway bombings in
influencing the Spanish elections, as well as
intercepted "chatter" among Qaeda operatives, has led
analysts to conclude "they want to interfere with the
elections," says one official.
As a result, sources tell NEWSWEEK, Ridge’s department
last week asked the Justice Department’s Office of
Legal Counsel to analyze what legal steps would be
needed to permit the postponement of the election were
an attack to take place. Justice was specifically asked
to review a recent letter to Ridge from DeForest B.
Soaries Jr., chairman of the newly created U.S.
Election Assistance Commission. Soaries noted that,
while a primary election in New York on September 11,
2001, was quickly suspended by that state’s Board of
Elections after the attacks that morning, "the federal
government has no agency that has the statutory
authority to cancel and reschedule a federal election."
Soaries, a Bush appointee who two years ago was an
unsuccessful GOP candidate for Congress, wants Ridge to
seek emergency legislation from Congress empowering his
agency to make such a call. Homeland officials say that
as drastic as such proposals sound, they are taking
them seriously, along with other possible contingency
plans in the event of an election-eve or Election Day
attack. "We are reviewing the issue to determine what
steps need to be taken to secure the election," says
Brian Roehrkasse, a Homeland spokesman.