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McCain Camp Sues Virginia Over Military Ballots
Here's a possible last-minute effort by the McCain camp to throw a wrench into the vote counting in a key swing state.
The Associated Press reports:
John McCain's campaign sued Virginia's electoral board today, hours before the election, seeking to force the state to count late-arriving overseas military ballots.The lawsuit asks a federal judge to order the State Board of Elections to count any overseas absentee ballots sent by November 4 and received by local election officials as late as November 14.
McCain claims the rights of military voters are protected by the federal Uniform and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Rights Act of 1986.
The campaign's complaint says that Virginia military voters posted overseas who support the Republican nominee will be denied their right to vote unless the court grants the order.
The report adds that no hearing was scheduled by this afternoon.
Under normal procedures, military ballots would likely only be counted if their number exceeded the total margin of victory of one candidate, meaning they could affect the result. So the suit may be designed to ensure that Virginia can't be officially called for Obama early in the evening, which could depress Republican turnout in other parts of the country.
Late Update: Rick Hasen, an election law expert at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, tells TPMmuckraker that the suit is likely an effort to ensure that military ballots that arrived after election day -- which will likely favor McCain -- will be counted. That was an issue during the Florida recount of 2000, in which the courts ultimately ruled that such ballots could be counted. (Hasen cautioned that he hadn't yet had a chance to look closely at the suit.)
And on his blog, he asks a good question: "Why did this suit have to wait until the eve of the election?"
Josh
Zachary
As a retired soldier I don't think much of the possibility that McCain is trying to use the votes of our military personnel for his personal advantage!!
November 3, 2008 6:06 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think it's more a case of trying to grand stand Military support. Of course most Military folks know his voting record...
November 3, 2008 6:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess most service people are pretty conservative - and more than likely the Rebugs have counted on us to "do the right thing" whenever they needed a vote - but I can't believe that the last 8 years have been good ones for those who wear uniforms, especially the Army & Marine Corps - I pray that we will have new leadership in Washington on January 20th.
November 3, 2008 6:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I second your thoughts. Imagine a day when our military were not subject to the GOP's ridiculous grandstanding. Hopefully a President Obama will allow more soldiers, sailors, airmen & Marines to more freely get the microphone for our needs!
November 3, 2008 7:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
More stunts from the Stuntman.
November 3, 2008 6:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is the first of probably several efforts by McSame to screw with the results. That said, I seriously doubt this suit will go anywhere simply because, as stated, the military votes will be counted if the margin is close enough so that they affect the outcome. So there is no denial of their vote since the law is clear. This is the first of many desperate moves by McSame.
November 3, 2008 6:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm sure that McCain is just using this for political advantage (as demonstrated by "The campaign's complaint says that Virginia military voters posted overseas who support the Republican nominee will be denied their right to vote"), but I don't understand why it isn't just the law in the first place.
Count every vote; any absentee ballot (military or otherwise) postmarked by Election Day and received within ten days after Election Day is counted.
It's not like the Secretary of State of Virginia - or whatever state - has to officially announce the results immediately, and there's no reason why they wouldn't be able to say exactly what they do today - after all, they don't currently know on Election Day how many ballots they're going to receive by the 14th, so they don't know whether or not they're going to have to count them. But that doesn't keep them from declaring a provisional - not official winner, more or less immediately.
November 3, 2008 6:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agreed, if you are going to count late-arriving mail-in ballots, then they should be counted for everyone, not just the military. Or at least everyone who is mailing from overseas.
However: Don't I remember from 2000 that military ballots are usually NOT postmarked? Or is that one of those stories that circulated around at the time without any real truth to it?
Oh, yeah -- I did remember mostly correctly:
November 4, 2008 12:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
Imagine a member of the GOP trying to use the troops for political purposes. I''m shocked, I tell you, shocked!
Of course these votes will be counted. But the Commonwealth of Virginia's Board of Elections will know exactly how many military absentee ballots were requested, and how many were returned, so there should be no question as to the number of outstanding ballots yet to be received.
If Virginia is close, and the total military ballots requested don't come close to the gap, they are irrelevant. If they could close the gap, of course the final outcome would hinge upon the receipt and counting of these votes.
But it's presumptuous for McCain to assume that all men and women serving overseas would support him. I'm guessing they'd rather come home for good than face rotation after rotation after rotation.
PEACE
November 3, 2008 6:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is pure grandstanding. The issue is only Fairfax county, the total number of ballots originally disqualified was 260, and the issue was settled last week with the Virginia elections board ruling that they should all be counted.
WTF are you talking about McCain?
November 3, 2008 6:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's strange in that it's last minute and also goes against strict voting laws that normally help Republicans elsewhere. I see nothing wrong in counting military votes right away even if it doesn't make a difference but McCain has got to be crazy if he expects anyone to take his suit seriously when he and his party's members, including the damn president, are asking hundreds of thousands of votes put aside in swing states from people whose names don't exactly match their registrations due to clerical error even if everything else matches..or the ones whose names match names of felons..or the ones whose houses have recently foreclosed because foreclosure means no longer American. Unbelievable. 1 day. Bring out the clowns.
November 3, 2008 6:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's strange in that it's last minute and also goes against strict voting laws that normally help Republicans elsewhere. I see nothing wrong in counting military votes right away even if it doesn't make a difference but McCain has got to be crazy if he expects anyone to take his suit seriously when he and his party's members, including the damn president, are asking hundreds of thousands of votes put aside in swing states from people whose names don't exactly match their registrations due to clerical error even if everything else matches..or the ones whose names match names of felons..or the ones whose houses have recently foreclosed because foreclosure means no longer American. Unbelievable. 1 day. Bring out the clowns.
November 3, 2008 6:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
My son works for the State Dept. and is posted on the other side of the world. He (and everyone else there including the marine contingent) got his ballot several weeks ago. Evidently FedEx has a deal going that if these overseas folks get their ballots to a FedEx office, FedEx shipped them pronto back to Fairfax so they didn't have to go through the slower FPO system. While soldiers might not have a FedEx office quite so handy, I'll bet it was still a possibility for them. Yeah, FedEx!
November 3, 2008 7:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
Even if this has been brought several weeks ago the result would be the same. There will be no final decision there until all the ballots are counted. If Dems have a problem with that then it is reasonable to question their patriotism.
November 3, 2008 8:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
If I were wearing a tinfoil hat, I'd suggest that the suit is not only last-minute grandstanding, but designed to make sure that no court rules about the requirements for authenticating overseas absentee ballots could be promulgated before McCain operatives know just how many overseas absentee ballots they need to keep Virginia in play. One of the issues in florida in 2000 was whether the state should could ostensible military absentee ballots whose envelopes were not signed, that were postmarked after the election, and otherwise didn't meet the usual criteria.
November 3, 2008 8:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
I get it: if your black and your driver's license does not match your voter registration because in one instance there is no period after your middle initial, the McCain campaign says you get a provisional ballot that may be counted if we feel like it. But if you are McCain supporter in the military . . .
Don't get me wrong: I think votes should be counted. Everyone's.
November 3, 2008 9:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
I get it: if your black and your driver's license does not match your voter registration because in one instance there is no period after your middle initial, the McCain campaign says you get a provisional ballot that may be counted if we feel like it. But if you are McCain supporter in the military . . .
Don't get me wrong: I think votes should be counted. Everyone's.
November 3, 2008 9:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
Careful now, McArcane,
I bet a lot of those military personnel don't want to stay in Iraq and I know they don't want their children in Iraq.
Go home to Arizona and relax, kick back and revel in the 20th Century.
www.thetruthburns.wordpress.com
November 3, 2008 9:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
It may be helpful to know that "laches" means "undue delay in asserting a legal right or privilege."
-AF
Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
November 3, 2008 10:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Surely the US military has the discipline and organisational skills to get their personnel to vote on time? Members of the Australian military stationed overseas get to vote early so this doesn't happen. No votes are counted after the ballots close here.
November 4, 2008 2:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
I do not see why rules need to be changed the day of an election. The military in Virginia knew the rules, and I'm sure the soldiers have been reminded to get their vote in on time.
My 18 year old neighbor recently joined the military and during boot camp his platoon was "informed" by their sargeant that they shouldn't vote Democrat because the Democrats will try to hold their pay from them, as they did during Clinton's administration. I don't know what he was referring to, but it gives you an idea how the military influences (brainwashes) the soldiers' politics.
November 4, 2008 2:52 AM | Reply | Permalink