The Conservative Cave
Current Events => Breaking News => Topic started by: SSG Snuggle Bunny on April 02, 2009, 07:45:17 PM
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(http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d48/xbox23/GeneralBetrayUs.jpg)
Democrats showing their support.
The Shameful Disenfranchisement of the Military in New York’s Congressional Race [Hans A. von Spakovsky]
Only 25 votes separate Republican Tim Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy in the special election for New York’s 20th district. That means the winner will be determined by 6,000 outstanding absentee ballots.
According to the Department of Justice, 1,300 overseas voters requested absentee ballots, 471 of whom are military voters. Unfortunately, it is the military voters who will probably end up being disenfranchised and having their votes discounted, thanks to the irresponsible New York Board of Elections and the half-hearted actions of the Department of Justice.
The problem for military voters in places like Iraq and Afghanistan is that it takes so long for absentee ballots to make the trip by mail from county election officials in the United States to bases in combat zones overseas and back again. As a result, only a tiny percentage of their votes get counted. Non-profit groups examining the issue of ballot delivery times and federal agencies like the U.S. Election Assistance Commission all recommend that absentee ballots be mailed to military voters at least 45 days before they’re due. The Chief of Operations for the Military Postal Service Agency recommends at least 60 days.
In New York, ten counties make up the 20th congressional district, and nine of them sent their absentee ballots to overseas voters too late for them to be received and returned in time to count in this election. One county mailed them on March 12 and eight counties mailed them on March 13, all by regular mail with only one exception — Essex County used an express mail service.
Under New York law, absentee ballots in this race had to be postmarked by March 30, the day before the March 31 election, and received by April 7. That left most military voters only 25 days to receive, mark and return their absentee ballots, which everyone agrees isn’t enough time, given overseas mail delays.
The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, which is responsible for enforcing the federal statute that guarantees the right of overseas citizens and military personnel to vote by absentee ballot, contacted the New York State Board of Elections and requested that they issue their ballots sooner for this race. The two Republican members of the board voted to support this request. Yet the two Democratic members of the board, shamefully enough, voted against doing so. Were they trying to disenfranchise military voters?
The Justice Department then filed a federal lawsuit on March 24 against the election board and the governor of New York. But the requested remedy was nowhere near what should have been asked for to remedy this problem, and didn’t include any of the measures that we successfully asked for from other courts when I was at the Division coordinating DOJ’s enforcement of this statute.
The only thing DOJ leaders essentially asked for (and got in a consent decree) was an extension of time for the receipt of overseas ballots, from April 7 to April 13. In other words, despite the fact that almost every expert in this area now recommends at least a 45-day transit time for absentee ballots for military voters, Justice asked only for 30. Furthermore, when I was at the Division, we forced the career lawyers in the Voting Section to start incorporating modern technology advancements into the remedies we sought in these cases, something they seem to have already forgotten.
As a result, we obtained real, effective relief for military and overseas voters. In 2004, for example, we sued Georgia because numerous counties hadn’t mailed their absentee ballots in time to be received and returned by military voters. Not only did the judge provide an extension of time (like in the New York case), but we asked for and the judge ordered Georgia to send absentee ballots to overseas voters by facsimile and email, and to accept the returned, voted ballots at a secure facsimile machine under the supervision of the Secretary of State. While this compromised the secrecy of the ballot, it allowed voters to get their late-received ballots back in time to be counted, which was better than not having their vote count at all.
But to give them another option that protected the privacy of their vote, we forced Georgia to set up accounts with UPS and Federal Express that overseas voters could use to return their absentee ballots. This would get the ballots back in 2-3 days, instead of the minimum 12-18 days estimated for one-way transit. We also required Georgia election officials to notify every voter of these options by email, telephone or facsimile, using all available records to locate the overseas voters and their contact information.
The lawsuit filed in New York asked for none of these remedies. The DOJ leadership asked only for a five-day extension that won’t be effective in protecting the votes of military voters. It will, however, provide Justice with political cover so it can say it fulfilled its responsibility to military voters by filing suit to enforce the federal statute.
It doesn’t take much imagination to figure out who that ends up helping in a race with a 25-vote margin. Meanwhile, the voters who will end up being disenfranchised by New York election officials and inadequate enforcement by the Justice Department are the very Americans who put their lives on the line for the rest of us who reside safely here. This is shameful conduct.
[ The mystery as to why the dems have pissed on those who protect their cowardly, treasonous asses is revealed:]
UPDATE: My previous figure of 471 military voters in New York’s 20th congressional district was based on a Justice Department press release from March 26. I have received an update from a form distributed by the New York elections board indicating that as of April 1, there were 1,005 absentee ballots sent out to military voters.
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NjUwYWJmMTRjNDNlOWYyMTVhNTFiOGFjMWJhYTJkZWQ=
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The liberals will always do everything they can to disenfranchise the military vote every time they can.
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If I were one of those voters, I'd so be filing a suit based on violation of my protections under the 14th Amendment it would make liberal heads explode.
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Last week, I had heard that the NYS BOE had extended the deadline to April 6th for civilian overseas voters--and April 13th for military overseas voters.
Also, Tedisco is up by 12 votes as it stands now, in another thread in the BN forum.
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Last week, I had heard that the NYS BOE had extended the deadline to April 6th for civilian overseas voters--and April 13th for military overseas voters.
Also, Tedisco is up by 12 votes as it stands now, in another thread in the BN forum.
Still, one would have at least thought that the respective county boards of election would have ****ing known we have troops overseas by now.
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Still, one would have at least thought that the respective county boards of election would have ****ing known we have troops overseas by now.
oh they know - but isn't this a seat that is usually held by a democrap? They have to do what ever they can to keep it.
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oh they know - but isn't this a seat that is usually held by a democrap? They have to do what ever they can to keep it.
Blue State Saint can speak better than I could to this, but my understanding is that until recently (2004 or 2006 election) it was a fairly reliable GOP seat, much like my district was (NH-1) until Che-Porter (she of the famous teabag/anthrax police scare this week) came along. The seat flipped fairly recently and this is an excellent chance for the GOP to use this as a refutal of the policies of "Teh Wun".
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It was a Republican seat until the '06 elections. John Sweeney had held the seat, taking over from Gerald Solomon, but Sweeney had a few too many enemies and someone in the New York State Police leaked a domestic violence report on Sweeney (for which said trooper was demoted). Kirsten Gillibrand took the seat, then proceded to act not as a Hillary protoge, but more along the lines of a Blue Dog. She was re-elected, and it didn't help that the guy running against her--Snady Treadwell, George Pataki's Secretary of State--was about as exciting as stale toast.
Jim Tedisco is rather well-liked in my county (Saratoga), which makes up the lion's share of voters in the district. He himself doesn't live within the confines of the 20th, but parts of his NYS assembly district are in NY-20. HIs campaign very nearly screwed the pooch for him when they came out aggressively against Murphy--they seemed to be trying to define Murphy, rather than define Tedisco. My wife came up with a great idea for a campaign ad, with Tedisco at Saratoga National Historical Park, comparing the values that he espouses to the values that those who fought for the fledgling United States at Saratoga, and saying that he was continuing those values--limited government, low taxes, etc. Problem was that she thought of this with one week to go in the campaign, and she really didn't tell anyone other than me. Oh well.