(Originally published in Greater Democracy)

There is an old joke that goes something like this. One person asks, “What is the secret to being a successful comedienne?” Before the first person completes the question, the second interrupts yelling, “Timing!” It seems as if timing is becoming a cruel joke that is being used more and more often to deny people their rights.

I’m not a big sports fan, but I’ve watched enough football and basketball to hear commentators talking about controlling the clock. The clock has been carefully used to suppress the rights of U.S. citizens.

In 2000 there wasn’t enough time to properly recount votes in Florida. However, the Republican leadership of the house was willing to extent the time limit on a recent vote which would have restored rights to citizens that had been taken away by the Patriot Act. They delay was long enough for the Republican leadership to pressure enough members to change their vote and defeat the amendment.

During the Republican Convention, hundreds of protestors and innocent bystanders were illegally detained. New York law requires that they be brought before a judge within 24 hours. A judge found New York in violation of that law and ordered hundreds of people released. The city balked and the judge found the city in contempt of court. This is still being litigated. A lawyer for the NYCLU, who file a writ of habeas corpus on behalf of those illegally detained argued that New York City was delaying to keep people locked up until after the convention ended. Sure enough, many people weren’t released until after the convention ended.

Today, the St Petersburg Times reports about how the clock has been used to get Nader on the ballot. A suit had been brought to block ballot access for Nader, maintaining that the Reform Party is no longer a national party. A lower court agreed, but the Secretary of State’s office appealed. The Florida Supreme court said that it would wait until Wednesday to hear the appeal, waiting for the final order from the lower court. Saturday is the deadline for printing and mailing absentee ballots. The Secretary of State has ordered local election officials to print the ballots with Nader’s name on them, citing concern that Hurricane Ivan could further delay the decision. Further legal action is being pursued again today.

While some of the controlling of the clock may well be within the letter of the law, it is important to ask if the spirit of the law is being upheld, and how all of this affects the democratic process in the United States.