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McCain campaign sues over overseas military ballots
John McCain's presidential campaign filed a federal suit Monday against Virginia seeking to extend by 10 days the deadline for the state's acceptance of military members' federal absentee ballots.The McCain suit seeks an injunction to extend the date by which federal write-in absentee ballots must be received to be counted. The current deadline is today, but the suit seeks to have the date changed to Nov. 14. "Because many counties in Virginia failed to mail absentee ballots in time to our men and women in uniform stationed overseas, service members are being disenfranchised because they are unable to return their ballots before the November 4 deadline," campaign spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said in a written statement about the suit, which is scheduled to be heard in Williams' courtroom at 1:30 p.m. today. Chesapeake, Suffolk and Virginia Beach are among the localities cited in the lawsuit as those that mailed absentee ballots overseas in late September. The suit argues that service members didn't have enough time to cast their votes and return them stateside. Estimates range between federal agencies, but systemic impediments to overseas voting are seen as a hindrance that keeps service members stationed abroad from voting with the same success rate as the domestic population. This is the second recent flap over federal absentee ballots; an earlier dispute was resolved last week when state election officials allowed about 100 ballots to be counted that otherwise would have been disqualified under state law. Responding to the suit, Obama campaign spokesman Kevin Griffis said the Democratic presidential candidate "is strongly committed to protecting the rights of veterans and active-duty military. That is why our campaign sent a letter to every secretary of state earlier this fall urging them to do everything they can to ensure that the vote of active military and veterans are counted." Posted by: Steve White 2008-11-04 |
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