More disenfranchisement of military voters

[The Annoyed Man]

Board of Elections gaffe may nullify New York soldiers' overseas absentee ballots
New York Daily News
BY THOMAS M. DEFRANK AND LUKAS I. ALPERT, DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Originally Published:Monday, October 11th 2010, 2:02 PM
Updated: Monday, October 11th 2010, 2:02 PM

The Board of Elections is facing another "royal screwup" - this time for failing to ship absentee ballots to New York troops serving overseas.

"Our troops sacrifice their lives to protect our freedoms. They should never, ever be denied the right to vote," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, who pushed a 2009 law establishing deadlines for mailing absentee ballots.

New York election officials were required to ship the ballots to U.S. citizens living overseas by Sept. 17. Because New York primaries were held Sept. 14, the feds granted local officials an extension until Oct. 1.

Several New York counties blew past the extension - including the city's five boroughs.

Schumer urged election officials to rush delivery of the ballots to ensure that military votes are counted.

Since Senator Schumer seems as incensed as anybody about this, I don't think this is due to an ideological battle. I have to lay this squarely on feckless incompetence by government employees who just don't care about doing a good job because they can't be fired.

[dicion]

So there's a law requiring them to mail them..

They failed to do so.

Where's the punishment?

That's the problem with these laws that govern governments. There's no punishment for failing to meet them.

We need to fix this. Although my first thought was public caning of the persons responsible, I came up with a more realistic solution.

Suitable punishment in my opinion:
- Firing of the persons responsible for getting them out on time. No severance, no retirement, nothing. Fired, kicked out the door instantly. Goodbye. Also sets any time they have with the govt in regards to building towards retirement back to ZERO.
- Every Day that they are late getting them out, 1/365.25th of the Veterans taxes to the entity responsible for shipping them are waived or refunded, if applicable. (Property, School, I dunno, etc)
- Every Day that they are late getting them out, 1/365.25th of the Veterans STATE INCOME taxes are waived. (NY has state income tax)

You have to punish these politicians in a place where it HURTS them. Their Pocketbooks.

[threoh8]

That sounds a lot like "... no controlling legal authority ..." line about soliciting campaign contributions using government offices and equipment.

Discouraging or blocking military voting is nothing new. It happens stateside as well. Many states deliberately and legally barred military personnel from voter registration, up into the 1950's, IIRC.

I remember a gerrymandered voting precinct in the 80's that had soldiers in some of the barracks - usually junior enlisted, often without personal vehicles - to vote many miles away, while there were polling places on post for family quarters. And that was in Texas!

Sometimes the justification is the same as used to disenfranchise students. "They're only going to be here for a few years, then leave, so they shouldn't have as much say." "Those young soldiers/students don't take voting seriously, a lot of them don't vote, so it doesn't really matter."

If ANYONE has the right to vote and have it count, it's those who volunteer to serve. If I think they'll vote "wrong", it's up to me to try to persuade then to my way of voting or drum up enough other voters to offset the numbers.

[rdcrags]

If ANYONE has the right to vote and have it count, it's those who volunteer to serve.

Amen

[Texas Dan Mosby]

I have to lay this squarely on feckless incompetence by government employees who just don't care about doing a good job because they can't be fired.

Yup...

This is how government "health care" will be run as well.....

[rdcrags]

[quoteThis is how government "health care" will be run as well.....][/quote] Guaranteed.

[rdcrags]

Let's try again:

'This is how government "health care" will be run as well...'

Guaranteed!

[The Annoyed Man]

Here's another one:

Military ballots may not count in Illinois
By Adam Zielinski
http://www.wlsam.com/Article.asp?id=1985148&spid=

CHICAGO (WLS) - The U.S. Justice Department is investigating whether the state of Illinois missed the deadline for mailing absentee ballots to members of the military and other overseas American voters as part of a new federal overseas voting law.

Cris Cray, Director of Legislation at the Illinois State Board of Elections, says not all of Illinois' 110 jurisdictions were compliant with the 2009 Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE).

The law requires every state to mail their absentee ballots 45 days prior to Election Day to overseas troops, government employees and other Americans who want to vote from abroad.

Cray says she is currently compiling data from each of Illinois' jurisdictions to determine which were compliant and which were delinquent. Cray said it's possible the ballots may not be counted because the state was tardy in sending them out.

Another state run by the Democrat machine, can't get its head removed from its posterior long enough to do something right for once.

[The Annoyed Man]

And now the DOJ has been shown to be negligent in pursuing this problem, which has affected an increasing number of states.

Pajamas Media
October 16, 2010 - by J. Christian Adams
Congress Catches On to DOJ’s Keystone Kops Show
The curtain has been pulled back, and the Department of Justice spin that they are doing everything they can to protect military voters has become a laugh line.

Friday was a very bad day for the people responsible for the Keystone Kops operation protecting military voting rights inside the Justice Department. The three ranking members of the House of Representatives with oversight over military voting issues and the Justice Department sent a devastating letter to Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez. The curtain has been pulled back, and the DOJ spin that they are doing everything they can to protect military voters has become a laugh line.

Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith, Armed Service Committee Ranking Member Buck McKeon, and Elections Subcommittee Ranking Member Kevin McCarthy all joined forces to describe the clownish DOJ enforcement tactics in the letter. The problem for Eric Holder is that in just a few weeks, these three will probably shed the title “ranking member” and replace it with “chairman.”

Military ballots were required to be sent by September 18 under federal law. Some states, such as New York, received an extension to October 1. Despite these hard deadlines, nearly a third of states have failed to comply with the law. Military ballots have not been sent and in some cases this means our soldiers overseas are going to lose their right to vote. The public is beginning to see why.

{snip}

So how did private citizens learn about violations of federal law in places like New Mexico, New York, Arkansas, and Illinois before the DOJ did? That’s where the story shifts from comic to tragic.

[Purplehood]

Gents, the last time I looked into this issue was about 25 years ago. I was stationed in my home state of Colorado as a Recruiter and I wanted to make sure that my absentee ballot had been received (I had submitted it before my transfer to Colorado). I spoke to the county clerk office and was thrilled to be told, "We stick all the Military ballots in a closet. If there is a close count, we pull them out and count them. Otherwise, they are not counted".

To me, this is nothing new. Our servicemembers that are using Absentee ballots are really wasting their time voting. In general, they are not counted anyway. It just makes good news to hear how our servicemembers are being denied their voting rights when they really have been denying them as a normal practice the whole time.

[ghostrider]

have to lay this squarely on feckless incompetence by government employees who just don't care about doing a good job because they can't be fired.

And in this case their punishment should be to be sent to Afghanistan to serve with the troops.

[The Annoyed Man]

Gents, the last time I looked into this issue was about 25 years ago. I was stationed in my home state of Colorado as a Recruiter and I wanted to make sure that my absentee ballot had been received (I had submitted it before my transfer to Colorado). I spoke to the county clerk office and was thrilled to be told, "We stick all the Military ballots in a closet. If there is a close count, we pull them out and count them. Otherwise, they are not counted".

To me, this is nothing new. Our servicemembers that are using Absentee ballots are really wasting their time voting. In general, they are not counted anyway. It just makes good news to hear how our servicemembers are being denied their voting rights when they really have been denying them as a normal practice the whole time.

Seriously? That's OUTRAGEOUS!!! I had no idea that was SOP. How do those people live with themselves?