Bush v. Gore--the money quote that will fuck the Repukes...

[msanthrope]

So the provisional ballots must be counted.....one vote is not more equal than another...you must count the provisional ballots--at least once.

The right to vote is protected in more than the initial allocation of the franchise. Equal protection applies as well to the manner of its exercise. Having once granted the right to vote on equal terms, the State may not, by later arbitrary and disparate treatment, value one person's vote over that <*105> of another. See, e.g., Harper v. Virginia Bd. of Elections, 383 U.S. 663, 665, 16 L. Ed. 2d 169, 86 S. Ct. 1079 (1966) ("Once the franchise is granted to the electorate, lines may not be drawn which are inconsistent with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment"). It must be remembered that "the right of suffrage can be denied by a debasement or dilution of the weight of a citizen's vote just as effectively as by wholly prohibiting the free exercise of the franchise." Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 555, 12 L. Ed. 2d 506, 84 S. Ct. 1362 (1964).

Bush v. Gore, 531 U.S. 98, 104-05 (2000)

[msanthrope]

1. You must count the provisional ballots....