Posted on 12/29/2004 9:49:18 AM PST by Publius
If a man or woman is willing to take a bullet for the country, his or her vote ought to count.
Period.
Yet in the photo-finish race for governor, some local military personnel, for a range of reasons, say they didn't get a chance to make their voices heard via the ballot.
It was not for lack of trying.
Lesley Steinbach, 23, used to get her absentee ballot sent to the Olympia area, where her parents live.
After she joined the Navy, the military sent her to New Orleans. She requested a change of address with Thurston County. Her family says the county confirmed the change.
But when the election came around this year, Steinbach, an air traffic controller, was surprised -- she was ballot-less. She ended up not being able to vote. "She was disappointed," her stepfather, Larry Allen, said. "Discouraged."
Tyler Farmer, a Marine, opened up his absentee ballot in Iraq right around the time President Bush was declared the victor in his re-election bid.
Farmer -- a 23-year-old who has a computer animation degree from a school in Everett -- was bummed because he figured it was too late to mail in his ballot. He chucked it, because he thought rules are rules, not to be broken.
Later, Farmer, who supports GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi, saw how his vote could have made a dent. He heard about how postelection politicking had twisted and tugged state election rules. Farmer, who suffered shrapnel injuries in Fallujah battling "a lot of bad guys," now wishes his ballot out of Snohomish County had arrived earlier.
Oh, the irony: He is fighting for democracy abroad but unable to participate in democracy at home.
Tyler William Smith's absentee ballot "vanished" after he filled it out. The 20-year-old Navy seaman from Kirkland, who had been serving aboard the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy, says his ballot arrived in late October.
He put it in the mail that very same week. "I'm not sure what happened next, sir," said the third-generation Navy enlistee who is registered to vote in King County.
What happened next became the mission of Smith's mother. "So I call King County elections people," Clary Smith said, picking up the story. "I found out Tyler's ballot had not been counted."
After making inquiries, she said, her son's ballot did show up -- and King County officials confirmed to me yesterday that he was credited with voting. Still, given the adventures of her son's ballot, Clary Smith has her suspicions. "This whole vote," she said, "is a big joke."
If so, Democrats stand to get the last laugh. This week, Secretary of State Sam Reed will likely certify Democrat Christine Gregoire as governor, dashing Rossi's Olympia dream.
Whatever happens, the stories of Steinbach, Farmer and Smith give reason for pause.
Democracy isn't impeccable. Mistakes can and do happen. Ballots may get lost or delayed in the mail. Political parties, as we've seen so much in recent weeks, will hassle over whose ballots should count and under what circumstances.
Largely untouched in all of this is whether any problems with military or overseas ballots played a role in the gubernatorial election.
It's an interesting question. Ballots were mailed to 31,910 registered Washington voters living overseas, many of them in the military. Officials couldn't say yesterday how many of those ballots have been returned. King County is crunching those numbers.
But just 129 votes separate Gregoire from Rossi, so a fraction of bungled ballots could make a difference.
The Secretary of State's Office tells me it hasn't received even a trickle of complaints. Ballots were mailed out in time -- by Oct. 8, more than three weeks before the election.
Delays or snafus could have occurred once the ballots hit the postal network or entered the military mail-handling system, conceded Pamela Floyd, assistant elections director for voter services.
She said military and overseas ballots are not subject to usual postmark rules; the ballots, provided they were signed and dated by Nov. 2, just had to arrive in a county elections office by Nov. 16, the day before certification.
That means Farmer, the young man who tossed his ballot, probably had more time to send it in -- if only he knew those rules. Some military people did not.
Floyd points out that if soldiers overseas did not receive their absentee ballots, they could send an e-mail or call elections officials back home to get a new ballot.
How nice. But really, folks, who has time to do all of that when they are ducking bullets, worried about suicide bombers and stressed out?
Not surprisingly, state Republicans, who have nothing else but pride to lose in this race, are wondering if overseas ballots were indeed trouble-free. They say they've fielded a couple of dozen or so complaints and concerns from voters.
Such maneuvering is to be expected in such a close, contentious race.
Every ghost in the political machine becomes a screaming banshee.
But the broader issue here is one worth visiting.
Regardless of party affiliation, it is only fair that a fighting chance be given to ballots belonging to the men and women we readily send off to war.
Ping.
Perhaps it is because he believes the lie that the majority of those serving in the military are poor minorities?
This country needs to do a better job of making sure that military votes are counted....
He gets points for not being hypocritical, then. (Unless he's only concerned about black military personnel.)
I think this is a serious violation of the National Voting Rights Act and the Voter Registration Act. Any Experts out there?
If you want every military vote to count...then simply pass a law that says a county vote handler risks five years in prison if they refuse a military ballot. Its that simmple. The miltary would gladly hire 20 lawyers to press cases against every county that wants to tangle with its folks. And add a $10k fine for the county itself if they can't rationally explain why they tossed military ballots.
I'm tired of the congressional lack of effort. Its time to burn some folks and send them off to state jail if they can't do their job.
Democrats NEVER want to count the military votes. They will always look for a way to avoid/delay/misfile/ignore them.
BTTT These are the kinds of names & stories we need of disenfranchisement for the legal challenge. I will email to the Rossi campaign just to be sure it doesn't fall through the cracks.
Well, hello everybody! Glad to see you all made it through
Christmas.
This is Recall who thanks to Publius and others who pinged me watched the theft of the governors office in Washington State from Alexandria VA.
I guess there has always been cheaters in elections but this was so transparent, in your face, and the attitude of screw you we will just steal it and theres nothing you can do astonds me.
Where do you go from here. I saw posts at one time how if elected she won't be able to get anything done. I hope that is true.
I don't know how to turn your rage into action or if there is
an avenue not blocked by the Democrats. You may have to wait until the next election and be ever so prepared for every devious trick known to man.
I was wondering if a stolen vote is cause for a cival suit? If so it would justify a revisit by a court to certain ballots.
It's the best I can come up with right now.
Chin up Folks, you have and are doing your best.
Ping for later
Rossi only has two avenues left.
He can make a case to the legislature that he really won and ask for both houses to certify him. He doesn't have a prayer there.
He can contest the election, go to state court and build a case that there was so much incompetence and/or fraud in King County that the election result was wrong. The court could throw out the election, and then it would be up to the legislature to determine the rules of the revote. But Rossi would have to have incontrovertible proof, not just allegations, of wrongdoing to get this result.
The rumor yesterday was that Rossi will concede tomorrow. I hope he doesn't.
Hopefully not. Sure didn't come across that way to me. Kudos to the man for this column.
Doesn't sound like a lot of effort has been put into this important item. Seems like more fun to have stories and find someone to blame.
If the military is really serious they only need to create a special process for this. At each post would be a special mailbox for ballots and it would also have special ballot envelopes. Something like a FedEx box setup. Then use a special expedite process and have mail from these boxes all clear to only a couple of locations in the States and then stamp them with a military ballot postmark. Then send them into the regular post system.
bttt
BTTT>
He might be - he is definitely a lefty, and it often clouds his judgment...but, to draw on a quote from the Mary Tyler Moore Show, "When a donkey flies, you don't blame him for not staying up that long."
They're going to certify this election for the Democrap; then, in 6 months or so, we'll find out that -- once all those military ballots that got in late are actually counted by an investigation -- the Republican actually won. But, by then, it will be too late.
"Oh, well ... better luck next time." The Democrats are saying, as they laugh their way back into the Governor's mansion.
So much for "count every vote!" Don't they mean "Count every Democrat vote!" Yeah ... that's what they REALLY mean!
My thoughts are to count ALL military votes FIRST and verify that they got to vote...then, and only then, count the rest.
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