Discussions Continue On How to Delay Election

NBC news is reporting federal election officials will meet next week with officials of the Department of Homeland Security to discuss whether the November presidential election should be postponed in the event of a terrorist attack. Top Bush administration officials said Monday there were no plans to postpone the elections, but the head of the newly created US Election Assistance Commission is seeking the power to do just that in case of a national emergency. Last week when a reporter asked White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan if the elections will go ahead as planned, McClellan said " I don't think anyone can make guarantees. But the full intention is to move forward and hold those elections." The country has never postponed or rescheduled a presidential election before. Many historians yesterday pointed out that even during the midst of the Civil War the country went ahead with elections. In 1864 President Abraham Lincoln said "We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us."