Posted on 10/24/2008 6:33:46 AM PDT by jessduntno
Military Ballots Being Rejected in Virginia by Connie Hair
Fairfax County Registrar Rokey Suleman is disqualifying an overwhelming majority of the military federal write-in absentee ballots received in his county on the basis that no address had been given for those witnessing the voter signatures on the ballots. According to Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity and four former members of the military who held a press conference on Thursday, over 98 percent of these military absentee ballots in Fairfax County are being rejected.
“The federal write-in absentee ballot is a federally mandated ballot that allows military service members and their dependents to cast an absentee ballot when they haven’t received a [state] ballot before the election,” Herrity said. “For them it’s a safety net. It allows them to vote if the mail truck hasn’t reached his or her remote base in Iran or Afghanistan in time to cast a regular absentee ballot.”
When asked how many ballots had been rejected, Herrity responded, “Out of the 260 military federal write-in ballots received to date, only five included an address for the witness. The other 255 have been set aside for rejection.”
I’m expecting the democrats to start rejecting Florida ballots too. :(
The fix is in...
Only democRATS would disenfranchise our military. They are disgraceful.
From the DC examiner:
Fairfax County elections staff visited jail to register inmates
By William C. Flook
Examiner Staff Writer 10/8/08
Inmates at the Fairfax County jail were encouraged to register and vote last week by elections officials making what the county’s sheriff called the first visit of its kind in his 30 years with the county.
That voter turnout effort is now being defended by county officials, but blasted by Republicans who called it an attempt to influence what could be a close presidential election in the commonwealth.
Both Fairfax County General Registrar Rokey Suleman and Sheriff Stan Barry deny any wrongdoing in the decision that granted Office of Elections on-site access to the Adult Detention Center in downtown Fairfax. Barry did, however, say it was unprecedented in his 30-year career with the county.
“We’d never run into it before, honestly,” Barry said. “They contacted us last week and we were not willing to take any role in it, but basically they were just asking for access to the prisoners who were eligible to vote, and we gave them that.”
The visit came as presidential campaigns were making feverish attempts to sign up voters ahead of the Oct. 6 deadline. The state is considered critical to the White House aspirations of Barack Obama and John McCain.
Felons are not eligible to vote in Virginia without having their rights restored by the governor. Suleman said his office, at the request of criminal defense attorneys who approached his staff, delivered registration forms and absentee ballots to inmates with misdemeanor convictions and those awaiting felony trials.
Suleman, who is listed as a founder of the Trumbull County (Ohio) Young Democrats, ran for office in the Buckeye State as a Democrat earlier this year. He said the office he holds in Virginia is nonpartisan.
Barry, an elected Democrat, said an initial visit took place Wednesday, and again on Friday to pick up completed forms.
Republicans likened the visit to Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine’s drive to restore voting rights to non-violent felons, who are believed to vote disproportionately Democratic.
“I’m stunned and outr aged,” said Fairfax County Republican Committee Chairman Jim Hyland. “To me it’s unbelievable that the Democrats are stooping to this, that they want to count on lawbreakers to try and switch this state from red to blue.”
He said the committee is “going to look at all of our legal options, whether this was in the bounds of the law.”
Said Fairfax County Supervisor Michael Frey, a Republican: “Given the budget, and how tight staff is, it does sort of smell that the place they’re going for on-site visits in the Fairfax County jail.”
Suleman said his office will help register voters anywhere an on-site visit is requested. He said his staff picked up about 20 registration forms on Friday, and that he didn’t know the names of the lawyers who contacted his staff.
“As soon as I got wind of it I said ‘OK, let’s make sure we get these guys registered to avoid any other legal headaches [of] being carted in to court to register people,’” Suleman said.
On the other hand if the guys can’t fill the form out properly shouldn’t they be rejected? I don’t understand the need for a address in Iraq or other places(witness) What would the address be: (Somewhere out in the desert) Makes no sense.
If you reject military voters ballots over b.s. then you should have your ass kicked severely.
Can they still vote online?
It does not appear that anyting will be done to correct this absolute travesty either. The military vote will be rejected for all sorts of bogus reasons and another latge chunk of badly needed votes will go uncounted. They did it before and got away with it...hey, if it works....
255-5 Isn’t that about the McCain-BHO ratio in the military polls?
We CANNOT let this happen again!!! Our brave military personnel more than anyone else deserve to have their voting rights protected. Rejecting them over a small detail while gross violations and fraud are being committed to allow illegals and such to vote is downright evil. What can be done about it?
So they, to use the dems word, disenfranchise the very people who protect their right to vote? They spit in the face of those who have given the people of Iraq the right that they are now trying to take away from the military?
Utterly amazing the gall of the dems. And only in America could they actually get away with it.
voter supression - can we ask ACORN to take some of my tax dollars and figure out a way to get military ballots counted?
I heard on the news that the ballot does not provide a space or requirement for the witness addresses. I have not seen the ballot so I stop short of swearing to it.
This is a discrace! The rat bastard democrats know an overhelming majority of the military vote goes to the right. More ACORN happy crap?....
Without lies and fraud there would be no Democrat party.
It’s being remedied.
From: Bob Carey (Empire-Capitol Strategies) [mailt]
Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2008 3:37 PM
To: ‘Bob Carey (Empire-Capitol Strategies)’
Subject: Fairfax County, Virginia Rejecting FWABs
As many of you know, Sam Wright, Director of the Military Voting Project at the National Defense Committee, sent this excellent letter to the Department of Justice Voting Rights Section encouraging them to investigate the actions of Fairfax County, Virginia Board of Elections regarding witness requirements on Federal Write-In Absentee Ballots, the provisional ballots military and overseas voters use if they have not received their regular absentee ballots.
The problem is that the Fairfax County government had originally interpreted Virginia law to require all Federal Write-In Absentee ballots to have a witness’ signature, printed name and address on the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot. However, the underlying Virginia law only requires this witness signature, printed name and address if they are taking advantage of the special Virginia provision that allows the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot to ALSO serve as the absentee ballot application. Because that’s different from what the federal Voting Assistance Guide says, hundreds of Federal Write-In Absentee Ballots received to date were potentially going to be rejected. In fact, as of today, while about 260 Federal Write-In Absentee Ballots had been received by Fairfax County, only five had the witness name and address.
I’ve been in contact with the Fairfax County Registrar, Rokey Fulman, and he accepted my recommendation to contact the Virginia State Board of Elections to confirm this interpretation of the Virginia statute, as Sam’s letter points out the Fairfax interpretation is likely incorrect. I’m happy to report that he has received guidance from the State Board of Elections that the witness name and signature requirement do indeed only apply if the FWAB is also being used simultaneously as an absentee ballot application. Therefore, so long as a Federal Post Card Application is received by election day, the Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot will count, which is the normal process for military absentee ballots to be cast.
Hopefully this will allow for the ballots to be fully counted. National Defense Committee, through its Military Ballot Protection Program, will continue to monitor this development, take appropriate and forceful action where needed, and advise you all as to what we are doing.
I am not military, but I voted absentee (Virginia). At least for my county (Chesterfield), there was absolutely NO space for the Witness’ address. Just the witness’ signiture on the envelope.
The instructions do not mention need for a witness address.
The ballot and the instructions to fill it out are in the original article:
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