The Senate voted along party lines to reject a special committee's recommendation that Woodward should be seated. Stephenson, 32, won the popular vote, according to unofficial returns, but Woodward filed suit. Two judges have since ruled that Stephenson does not meet the constitutional requirement of living in Kentucky for six years before the election.
The Senate then voted to accept the recommendation of three Republican members of the contest committee that Stephenson take the seat because she intended to make her home in Kentucky and still had a house here.
Testimony during various court proceedings revealed that Stephenson lived in Indiana, including attending school and paying in-state tuition, voting, getting a driver's license and buying a house, during much of 1998 to 2001.
Two judges ordered that Stephenson's 22,772 votes not be counted and only Woodward's 21,750 be certified by the State Board of Elections.
Williams, in a speech before the dramatic end of the proceedings, said he was confident the Senate had the power to determine its own membership. He said, for example, the Senate could vote to admit a 23-year-old, even though the Constitution requires senators to be 30.
"If 20 people in this body voted that someone was 30 years old, no court in the land could overturn that," Williams said.
Clearly this should have been caught prior to the election. For whatever reason it wasn't. However I do not feel that you disenfranschise people who voted in the majority for one party......by seating the opponent of the other party. IMO the way to handle this would be for the Repulicans to find a replacement and have a revote and let the chips fall where they may.
The interesting part is that this seat represents a potential supermajority for one party. If they get the seat the other party can't even filibuster. Partisan politics does not even begin to describe the shitstorm that is going to come out of this.
I voted for Woodward, cause Stephenson was about as uber right wing as it gets, and anything too far left or right is bad sauce IMHO.
On the plus side I moved our of the area she represents this past December. Stephenson (from what I have seen on TV and based on the policy she stood behind) is a VERY closed minded person (as comes with the uber right wing territory). What kills me is that it was as close as it was with someone that far out there running against someone on what seemed to be a moderately liberal platform.
All in all, its about time Kentucky got into some national drama (save countless COPS episodes of course)
P.S. I voted for W, so that should tell you something about that senator to be
