Posted on 08/08/2006 2:15:52 PM PDT by Grendel9
08/02/06 Oops! Absentee Ballots Went Out Too Late for Aug. 8 more... by Christine Stuart 02:53:17 pm, Categories: CT Elections 2006, 415 words The United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz because 85 Town Clerks failed to send absentee ballots to the military and uniformed officers oversees in time for Aug. 8 primary.
In order to see that the voting rights of the men and women serving the United States are not violated, the lawsuit that is being called an "agreement" between the state and federal government, seeks to keep the final ballot count open until Aug. 25.
Bysiewicz said Thursday she sought the help of the feds after her office began to survey the towns and found that about 85 of the 169 municipalities failed to get the ballots out in time.
[More:]
She said since she has no power to hold the election open until all the oversees ballots are returned she contacted the federal government who stepped in and did its own survey of the towns.
“I have no statutory authority to hold elections open beyond 8 p.m. on August 8th to assure that these ballots are all counted. In the event that late-arriving military absentee ballots could change the outcome of the elections, I am joining with the Department of Justice in their efforts to keep the primary open through August 25th,” Bysiewicz said in the press release. “I am committed to assuring that every ballot cast by overseas servicemen and women will be counted.
The press release stated that Bysiewicz's office sent out four different letters to Connecticut Town Clerks reminding them of this law and to make sure the necessary absentee ballot forms were sent out to military members stationed overseas. However, as many as 75 towns still did not send the ballots out prior to late July, "which raised the possibility of those ballots not arriving home by August 8th and not being counted."
As of Friday, July 28 the federal government surveyed 95 of the 169 municipalities and identified 650 qualified oversees voters, the lawsuit filed in federal court Wednesday states. Municipal election officials in these 95 towns sent out 290 absentee ballots by July 11, or 28 days before the primary. There were 360 ballots sent out after July 11, according to the lawsuit. The ballots sent out after July 11 were sent expedited through the U.S. Postal Service or commercial carriers.
What does this mean for the candidates. It means if the U.S. Senate contest is within about 650 votes, there will be no clear winner in what pollsters have pegged as a close race between incumbent U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman and challenger, Ned Lamont.
Supreme irony here if Joe lost to military ballots (which presumably would favor him over Lamont), considering his hand in suppressing same in 2000.
Screw the military vote, again. Hard to believe it is an accident in a race that revolved around war policy.
It's worked for them more than once already, until they pay a price they will continue to do it.
It was a slick party hack in Philadelphia who wrote the memo on how to disqualify military ballots. Something like 40% of them were, in fact, diqualified for the most trivial of reasons such as an illegible postmark. According to Bill Sammon's book At Any Cost, the Democrat hacks stood up, cheered and high fived each other when the disqualified military votes were able to increase GWB's lead by only a few hundred votes.
The crap they pulled on the military votes came back to bite them big time when they pulled out their "count every vote" mantra over dimples, chads and double marked ballots in an attempt to manufacture additional votes from their key precincts-- the only precincts, by the way, which got counted more than once. Thus, the supposed 580 vote lead (or whatever it was) should have been, had all votes been treated equally, at least 10 times that margin.
Sounds like something Christine Gregoire would try!
Yes...isn't that called Schedenfruede...
Someone needs to hang.
Wasn't that Ed Rendel? If there's one thing Democrats do best, it's stealing elections.
LOLOLOL
BTW, they didn't even need a postmark.
Ed Rendell is still a slick party hack. He's just been promoted to governor now.
One would be believable - but 85?
Planned.
Joe, there is a g-d after all.
He sat in on the meeting when the plan was dicussed and he never voiced any opposition.
You can spin your defense of LIEberman all you want. It does not change the facts. You can blame anyone you want, it does not change the truth.
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