Is there a problem with military absentee ballots? (updated Friday)

This conservative perspective from a former Justice Department lawyer and FEC commissioner says the agreed-on remedy to settle the federal suit is inadequate, that many military ballots from combat zones will probably be disqualified, which will likely help Murphy and hurt Tedisco.

Update: A couple of sources tell me the Tedisco campaign will move to address this issue in state Supreme Court, Dutchess County, which is overseeing the absentee count. One says that if outstanding absentees from combat zones are enough to sway the election, the schedule for counting the votes and announcing the result may have to be extended.

Comments

[Molly]

I think it's likely that most of the absentee ballots did not make it to the combat zones in time for the soldiers in question to vote. It takes much longer for ballots to reach combat zones than it does other military addresses. Serving in Europe, I got my ballot less than a week before the election date. If I'd been serving in Iraq or Afghanistan at the time, it never would have been forwarded in time.

I'm not sure if this is a statewide problem, or just a problem with our district, but I was also one of the last people in my unit to recieve an absentee ballot last November.

[BJC]

Shocking. I thought that the Bush v Gore 2000 election count in Florida would inspire a thorough shake up in the way we run elections. Nine years later we still can't seem to guarantee this basic American right to have our votes counted fairly. Are we upstate New Yorkers going to be doomed now to endless court battles like Minnesota? Marc Elias, a lawyer for Al Franken, was recently quoted regarding that election controversy: “...the math is the math.”
Ah, if only that was so.
As my Army daughter prepares to deploy overseas, I am hoping that her right to vote and have it be counted will always be assured.

[Kathleen Moore]

It seems like this is the perfect opportunity for the faxed votes as used in that previous case. Honestly, I don't think faxed votes would really identify the voter -- I imagine folks in a military unit would share the same fax machine, so it's not like the number could be tracked back to one person. For people who have access to a city (say, your typical civilian), they could simply fax it in from a public fax machine. There's got to be some business similar to the UPS Store.
I suppose it is slightly possible that somebody could track the destination code of each fax and then look up where people live and make a good guess. But I don't think a bored clerk collecting faxes each day would really memorize each ballot and the destination code. And the person's point about it being better than not getting to vote at all is well taken. I don't see why the fax method wouldn't be used.
It seems to me like it's not too late -- if there's anybody overseas who has not yet mailed their ballot, it probably won't get here in time, so perhaps they at least could be allowed to fax it in, if someone would give them permission.
Although I must admit the simplest solution seems to be to wait a few additional weeks. Why not start counting now and keep counting until May 1 or so, as the ballots come in? I think the district can get along without a representative for a few more weeks.

[Molly]

Even if we wait a few extra weeks, the people who didn't recieve their ballots in time to make the 30 March mailing date will be disenfranchised. New York State needs to send out absentee ballots much, much earlier.

[Brian]

I wonder if Tedisco'll still feel that way if he's ahead after the domestic absentees are counted.

BJC's comment makes me wonder why NYS still refuses to comply with HAVA... many years after the deadline for doing so expired.

When I lived abroad, admittedly not in a combat zone, I got my absentee ballot several weeks before election day.

I suspect the late arrival is related to the compressed nature of the special election. If memory serves correct, the governor didn't official call for the election until around Feb. 23, only five weeks before actual election date. I think the major parties bosses had two weeks to anoint their candidates and smaller party candidates the same amount of time to collect thousands of signatures that would be disenfranchised. So excluding the eventual exclusion of Sundwall, the candidate roster was basically set around March 9. Then ballots had to be printed, then mailed....

I assume this is to make sure district voters aren't without representation in DC for too long but I think the process could've stood to be prolonged by two weeks.