Posted on 10/02/2002 4:55:45 PM PDT by Timesink
What ever THE SOPRANO COURT wants it to be!!! (wish I could take credit for that gem, but can't.)
It's whatever the Socialists say it is!
There was a time, in this country, when a judge who handed down an obviously asinine decision in the interest of achieving a transparently corrupt end, did so at the risk of being tarred and feathered in the public square.
They didn't hand down as many asinine and corrupt decisions, back then.
On the subject of timely mailing of absentee ballots:
A quick read of this shows that based on a 1973 election statute, the U.S. Justice Dept has generally considered that there must be a minimum of 35 days between from when ballots become avaiable and election day, so that military personnel overseas can get their ballots in on time. For NJ, that has already been passed.
However, if a remedy were to be ordered, probably what would happen, is that the federal courts would mandate that overseas military ballots be counted if they arrive within 10 days after the election.
The now-famous Florida 10-day add-on came about as a result of a DOJ lawsuit in 1980, because Florida was having a hard time getting its absentee ballots printed and mailed on time (Apparently, electorally incompetence is something of a tradition down there!). Adding the 10 days gave them time to meet the 35-day "rule."
Interestingly, Georgia has a state mandated 45-day rule, which, because they failed to get the ballots out two weeks ago, has resulted in a just-initiated DOJ v. State of Georgia lawsuit. Maybe next they'll sue NJ!
The principle behind this is that in Federal elections, the DOJ has a strong precedent of demanding that states follow their own statutory rules with precision.
RIGHT! What a boneheaded and wrong decision!!!
Me too, seat belts, non-smoking buildings, look out N.J., you're about to have a population explosion!!
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