State argues they don't need to send out absentee ballots in time to vote

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by: NEWSMAN

Here is a story that POLster’s from all political parties should see as a matter of basic voting rights.

One would expect all who believe in Democracy will condemn this practice, and call on the state to correct it immediately.

But I have been wrong about my ultra partisan friend’s before.

What say you Colorado POLster’s?

The Virginia State Board of Elections argued in their most recent filing that they have no legal obligation to send out military absentee ballots in a timely manner.

Restated, the State of Virginia has argued in a federal court filing that they can legally send out absentee ballots to active duty soldiers the day before an election.

Restated again, the Democratic Chairwoman of the Virginia State Board of Election (appointed by the Democratic National Committee Chair Tim Kaine, in his capacity as Virginia Governor), Jean Cunningham just claimed a legal basis for massively raising the barrier to voting for soldiers at war.

9 thoughts on “State argues they don’t need to send out absentee ballots in time to vote”

ajb says:

October 5, 2009 at 3:22 am

What’s the back-story, Newsman? This is a court filing, right? What’s the suit? How are plaintiffs and defendants? What’s the history leading up this, most recent, filing? What did other filings say?

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1. ajb says:
  
  October 5, 2009 at 3:23 am
  
  Sorry, didn’t proofread before posting.
  
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  1. ajb says:
    
    October 5, 2009 at 5:59 am
    
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    1. Barron X says:
      
      October 5, 2009 at 8:44 am
      
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      Freudian slip ?
      
      by the way, some of us are concerned about how the “Palin-tiffs” and defendants are doing and appreciate you raising that question.
      
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DavidThi808 says:

October 5, 2009 at 4:22 am

FDR insisted on holding the elections and getting absentee ballots out to all soldiers even though there was a lot of support for “in time of war” it could be delayed.

Same for Lincoln in the Civil War. And in this case some states did not have absentee ballots so the army gave all soldiers in those states leave to go vote.

That’s the standard we should always live up to.

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1. Barron X says:
  
  October 5, 2009 at 8:48 am
  
  .
  
  like the idea of getting a home leave R&R to go vote.
  
  They don’t believe their absentee votes are counted anyway.
  
  Would that also apply to Section 3161 Civil Servants or Personal Service Contractors ?
  
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Aristotle says:

October 5, 2009 at 7:27 pm

The linked diary appears to only focus on one statement in a filing that is probably factually true (I’m reminded of the Bush v. Gore case where Justice Scalia adamantly stated that there is no right to vote in the Constitution), but says nothing about the case being argued. Is someone suing Virginia? Why? Are they alleging that Virginia has, in fact, waited til the last possible moment to send out the military ballots?

Again, I’m reminded of Bush v. Gore. I think the linked diary in making a leap if they think that anyone is going to wait until the day before elections to mail out military ballots, even if they legally can wait that long.

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Phoenix Rising says:

October 5, 2009 at 10:38 pm

This is old news. On Nov. 4, 2008, the McCain campaign sued the State of Virginia to extend the deadline for counting overseas (military) ballots because some areas (I believe the original suit only mentioned Fairfax) did not mail out ballots “on time”.

I can’t find any exact details, but some ballots were not mailed out under guidelines (not laws) established at the Federal level in an attempt to insure that overseas voters received and were able to return their ballots on time.

An injunction was issued at the time extending the deadline, but the suit is ongoing, now prosecuted by the Obama Justice Department. A 2009-09-01 filing by the SBOE (Scribd) outlines the argument in full: that no law was broken by the various municipalities of the State of Virginia (or the SBOE by extension) in the late mailing of ballots.

The SBOE claims that: (1) no proof has been presented that the state violated even the guidelines set forth by the DOD, (2) the guidelines are contradicted by the DOJ’s witnesses, (3) that pending legislation addresses the lack of a law on mailing deadlines (admitting that there isn’t a current law to that effect), and (4) that the law’s one provision on dates – that affecting registration deadlines – would seemingly contradict and override the DOJ guidelines.

I’d say that the righties are just trying to make some hay out of a legal statement.

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1. Aristotle says:
  
  October 6, 2009 at 1:40 am
  
  I’d say that you’re conclusion is absolutely correct.
  
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