Fair and Square Since the Civil War, all states have chosen electors by popular vote. And the 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, refers to state elections of presidential electors. Even if a legislative decision to choose the 25 electors stood up legally, it would surely have grave political consequences � and embarrassing ones for Governor Bush. He would be asking to be named president, though he lost the popular vote nationally and in Florida, because a legislature controlled by his party and a governor who is his brother overrode the voters. Longstanding Florida law has expressly given to the voters the choice of the state's presidential electors. To change that law after the election would look grotesquely partisan. Republican tactics before, during and after this election already have a rank odor. For example, the secretary of state hired a private company to list "possible felons" and others who should be struck from the voting rolls � and thousands were struck though they were not felons. Blacks maintain that some of them were intimidated out of voting by a police roadblock on Election Day.