Many Overseas Ballots Rejected

Sweet Liberty.org vis AP ^ | Nov 17, 2000 | AP

[paul in cape]

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — More than 1,100 overseas absentee ballots were thrown out Friday as Republicans complained of a coordinated challenge by Democrats, particularly against ballots from military personnel.

In some counties, half or nearly all of the ballots were rejected, many of them military ballots that apparently didn't have postmarks.

Orange County, for example, rejected 117 of its 147 overseas ballots.

``The party of the man who wants to be the next commander-in-chief (GORE/LIEBERMAN)is trying to throw out the votes of the men and women he will be commanding,'' charged Jim Post, a Republican lawyer in Duval County, where 107 ballots were rejected.

Democrats dismissed the GOP suggestions of a coordinated campaign, noting local election officials made the decisions. "Rushing to a hasty conclusion and making partisan accusations is exactly what we don't need right now,'' Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Jenny Backus said.

Earlier this week, Mark Herron, a Tallahassee lawyer helping shepherd Democratic presidential election lawsuits through the local courts, sent a five-page letter to Democratic attorneys throughout Florida giving them tips on how to lodge protests against overseas ballots.

Such protests must be lodged before the ballot is taken out of the envelope. The letter focused on protesting military ballots, which are assumed to be heavily in favor of Bush, and included a section on military postmarks.

Republicans circulated a letter dated Friday from Navy Capt. E.M DuCom, deputy director of the military postal service, who said military mail is required to be postmarked. But he added, "There are instances when time constraints do not allow for proper postmarking/cancellation of the mail. The last flight may be departing the ship and the mail has to get on it.''

Ed Gillespie, a Republican strategist working for Bush in Florida, said 110 of 113 write-in ballots, mostly from military forces, were invalidated by officials in Miami-Dade County. He said more than half were thrown out because they had no witness or witness address listed but ``the form doesn't indicate that a witness is necessary.''

But the latest battle was over overseas ballots.

``There are more attorneys than there are ballots,'' said Bob Edwards, Chairman of the Republican Executive Committee for Walton County, where five votes were tossed out.

More than three-quarters of Orange County's 147 overseas absentee ballots were rejected by that county's canvassing board. Supervisor of Elections Bill Cowles said he was shocked by that number but attributes the 117 rejections to voters failing to keep their records current.

However, Republicans handed out an affidavit from the chief postal clerk of the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy to counter Democratic challenges to envelopes without postmarks.

``It is not unusual for mail being sent by naval personnel, whether embarked on naval vessels or otherwise, not to have a postmark,'' Edgardo Rodriguez said.

[nukethepeaceniks]

Let's e-mail this around, to remind people who the enemy really is. This disgusts me. While the sons-o-b!tches" cried about counting every vote, they do this to those who fight and die for our freedom.

[CyberAnt]

I have a problem with posting personal information about people. What bothers me is that kooks take advantage and make threatening statements - which gives FR a bad name. Secondly, threats are made to the families and that's definitely a no-no!

Besides, making threatening statements to lawyers is not very wise.

[Ronaldus Magnus Reagan]

If you subtract 1/2 of the fraudulent Democrat votes that were cast in just 1/2 of the states, and add 1/2 of the rejected military votes, then Bush would have won the popular vote big time.

Not only that, but there were some voting preceints(sp?) in downtown Philadelphia that supposedly had 100% voter turnout. That smells like voter fraud to me.

[4CJ]

A blast from the past! (think the dims might have learned from their mistakes in rigging that election, for future elections?? </ sarcasm>)

HUH? Dims LEARN? Thank's to their "educashun" and general lack of intelligence to begin with, that seems doubtful. Remember VNS (Voter News Service) has folded, and the ploy to decide elections by calling them prematurely will be countered as well. Fox is tearing the liberal TV media a new one lately, and with Rupert Murdoch purchasing Hughes, CNN will be DROPPED and replaced with FOX!

I am sure that Dashole is "saddened".

[marron]

I punched in “military ballots” in the FR search and got a long list of articles about problems with military ballots not being sent, not being received, not being counted. I was aware of a couple of cases but it seems to be more widespread than I had realized.

This is the original case from Gore/Bush but the other articles are more recent.

[OL Hickory]

Thank you!!