Conflicts of interest

[Volokh, Eugene]

        Prof. Griesel raises an excellent question, but let me highlight a
related one:  If the choice of whether to seat Republican or Democrat
electors to seat falls to the House and the Senate, wouldn't Senator
Lieberman and Vice-President Gore have to recuse themselves given their
obvious (even more so than Governor Jeb Bush's) conflicts of interest?

        In fact, if they do recuse themselves, and the vote otherwise falls
along party lines, the vote will be 50-49 for the Republicans in the Senate,
and also majority Republican in the House -- so Governor Jeb Bush's judgment
won't need to be solicited.  It is only if Gore and Lieberman don't recuse,
and the vote in the Senate goes 50-50 with Gore breaking the tie in favor of
his and Senator Lieberman's electors, that Jeb Bush's certification will be
the tiebreaker, and the question of Jeb Bush's recusal will arise.

Curtis Griesel writes:

> If the selection of Florida electors finally falls to Governor Jeb Bush,
> wouldn't he have to recuse himself of that role given his obvious conflict
> of interest?
>
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