Floridian Sues to Block Texas Votes for Bush
A federal lawsuit seeks to block the election of Republican George W. Bush by challenging running mate Dick Cheney’s claim to be a resident of Wyoming.
The suit, filed by Lawrence A. Caplan of Boca Raton, Fla., claims Cheney is a resident of Texas, and that he and Bush, therefore, shouldn’t be awarded that state’s 32 electoral votes.
Cheney spokeswoman Juleanna Glover Weiss dismissed the action as frivolous. He “is a legally registered voter in Wyoming,” Weiss said.
The suit cites the 12th Amendment of the Constitution, which says if the president and vice president are inhabitants of the same state, they can’t earn that state’s electoral votes.
Cheney was a resident of Texas until he changed his voting registration to Teton County, Wyo., on July 21. He or his wife have owned a home there since 1993.
Caplan said he filed the suit after Republicans tried to block the hand count of ballots in Florida.
“That just struck me as extremely undemocratic and something that would go on in Haiti,” Caplan said.
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