Ruling in Virginia: Late-Arriving Military Ballots Must be "Preserved" (Not Necessarily Counted-- Preserved for a Later Hearing)

Possibly tens of thousands of votes. The ballots were mailed out very late to our servicemen -- and McCain is suing to force the state to count them if they were sent out by today, even if they don't arrive by the deadlines.

The hearing will take place on November 10.

Could be Florida all over again.

On the other hand, we could just win. Vote.

Statement:

“We are pleased that the judge has ruled to preserve the ballots cast by our men and women in uniform currently serving overseas. This will help to ensure that local election officials do not destroy or dispose of these ballots before the court has had an opportunity to rule on our complaint. The McCain-Palin campaign strongly believes that no military ballot should be discarded as a result of a failure on the part of several counties and independent cities to mail ballots to service members in a timely manner. We believe without exception that the servicemen and women on the front lines protecting our freedoms deserve every opportunity to make sure their vote counts.” –Gail Gitcho, McCain-Palin spokesman

Background:

One example included in the lawsuit came from a young Marine serving in Western Anbar Province, Iraq. He applied for his ballot from Arlington County in August; they did not send it until September 29th; and he did not receive it until last week. There is no way his ballot will make it back to Arlington County by Tuesday--it takes at least 12-18 days for a ballot to be returned from Iraq.

The counties and independent cities implicated in this lawsuit include Arlington County, City of Chesapeake, Chesterfield County, Fauquier County, Loudoun County, City of Richmond, City of Suffolk, City of Virginia Beach. Although every federal and state agency recommend that absentee ballots be sent to overseas military members at least 45 days before the election, many of these counties sent out the ballot with less than 35 days before the election.

posted by Ace at 06:21 PM

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