Overreaching Soon-to-be-overturned(?) Courts

Thanks to BOTW.

Historian John Steele Gordon e-mails us with this observation:

I have been trying to think of a constitutionally mandated election (California Constitution in this case, of course) that was canceled a priori by a court. There have been a few that were overturned ex post facto for permeation of fraud--the Miami mayor's race a few years ago, for instance. But the only election that I can think of off the top of my head that was canceled (and in this case by the election authorities) was the primary being held on Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City.

Indeed, in 1864 this country held an election for president and Congress in the middle of the greatest war of the 19th century. How many voters were potentially disenfranchised by military action that day? By the way, that is the only instance in all history of a country holding an election in the midst of a civil war. But a few potentially hanging chads is justification for canceling the California election? Disgraceful does not begin to cover this decision.