Reports that have cropped up online, through the blogosphere and which echo a Newsweek report from mid-2004, suggest the White House may be planning to implement a security protocol that would include canceling the 2008 elections in case of "catastrophic emergency". The key may lie in still classified "top secret" document that combines National Security Presidential Directive 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20, issued on 4 May 2007.
According to Betsy Hartmann's reporting for Common Dreams:
previous administrations also had emergency plans. But the Bush directive transfers power from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to the White House, where the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism is assigned the job of 'National Continuity Coordinator'.
In June 2007, Charlie Savage wrote for the Boston Globe that
The Bush administration is writing a new plan to maintain governmental control in the wake of an apocalyptic terrorist attack or overwhelming natural disaster, moving such doomsday planning for the first time from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to officials inside the White House.
Savage also wrote that, though the mainstream media had paid almost no attention to the document or its potential impact on the structure of the federal government, those who had examined the language of the unclassified portion of the directive had expressed "concerns that the policy may be written in such a way that makes it too easy to invoke emergency presidential powers such as martial law".
The actual document states that "'Enduring Constitutional Government,' or 'ECG,' means a cooperative effort among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government, coordinated by the President", which leaves concerning ambiguity as to the powers the president might assume under this directive, in case of a "catastrophic emergency".
The same clause also states reassuringly that the aim is "to preserve the constitutional framework under which the Nation is governed and the capability of all three branches of government to execute constitutional responsibilities". It does however go on to cite the need to "provide for orderly succession, appropriate transition of leadership, and interoperability" among the technically separate branches of constitutional government.
Again, reassuringly, listed as the primary "National Essential Function", in section (5)(a), is "Ensuring the continued functioning of our form of government under the Constitution, including the functioning of the three separate branches of government". But in section (6), we find what appears again to hint at a vast expansion of presidential power:
The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government. In order to advise and assist the President in that function, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism (APHS/CT) is hereby designated as the National Continuity Coordinator.
Section (20) of the directive stipulates "This directive shall be implemented in a manner that is consistent with, and facilitates effective implementation of, provisions of the Constitution concerning succession to the Presidency or the exercise of its powers", but does not strictly limit the exercise of presidential powers to those enumerated in the Constitution as written and/or amended.
Section (21)(a) states that the directive "Shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and the authorities of agencies, or heads of agencies, vested by law, and subject to the availability of appropriations". This seems to admit for Congress the role of overseeing and regulating the planning and the implementation of the procedures outlined, should such a catastrophic emergency arise. There is no reference to the classified portions of the directive in the copy published via White House press release, on 9 May 2007.
In 2004, Newsweek reported that the Dept. of Homeland Security, under then director Tom Ridge, was planning to implement a nationwide emergency security strategy that would include something like martial law and the postponement of the 2004 election.
The news sparked outrage among politicians and the public, and 191 members of Congress signed a petition that charged that the strategy "including requesting an informal review by the Justice Department, would present the greatest threat to date to our democratic process - and would invite terrorists to disrupt the selection of our highest leader".
The plans were modified or withdrawn, and no effort is known to have been implemented to interfere with the 2004 election for security reasons. It was widely pointed out that Pres. Abraham Lincoln, treated by many detractors even in the Union states as a dictator for his management of the Civil War, did not cancel the presidential elections in 1864, when Confederate troops could very well have invaded the capital, an obvious threat to the nation's stability.
As reported by Sentido in 2004 "According to Newsweek, DeForest Soaries, the Bush appointee who made the controversial request has himself admitted that 'the federal government has no agency that has the statutory authority to cancel and reschedule a federal election.'"
One press report on the subject, on the
Free-Market News Network (listed by Google as available on "Mar 7, 2008 22:15:47 GMT"), has since been
moved or erased. A search for the articles title or for "2008 election" retrieves no such article.
There is no direct mention in the publicly available document of a strategy to postpone an election or to replace a constitutionally mandated presidential election with another process. But the document does refer cryptically to "succession", which it recommends follow the Constitution. No process for doing so is actually laid out, raising concern among some about what exactly is hidden from public view in the classified version of the document.
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