SwiftVets.com

[JK]

Posted on Thu, Oct. 21, 2004

Election offices don't have to send new ballots abroad

A federal judge rejected the Justice Dept. ideas, which came after Ralph Nader lost his appeal.

By Mario F. Cattabiani

Inquirer Staff Writer

HARRISBURG - Saying it could do more harm than good, a federal judge last night denied a Bush administration request to force Pennsylvania counties to send new absentee ballots to thousands of oversees voters and to count the results up to two weeks after Election Day.

Justice Department lawyers had asked U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane to impose such fixes to the unusual ballot dilemma caused by independent candidate Ralph Nader's on-again, off-again status as a presidential candidate in Pennsylvania.

"The 'remedies' proposed by the government invite unpredictability to an otherwise orderly and time-tested elections process," Kane wrote.

The state Supreme Court on Tuesday affirmed a lower court decision tossing Nader from the ballot, citing fraudulent signatures on his nominating petitions. But weeks earlier, election officials in some of the state's 67 counties sent absentee ballots overseas with Nader's name, while others sent forms without it.

Some of those overseas voters, including soldiers serving in Iraq, are now being asked to pick from an incorrect slate of presidential candidates. And, as a result, they are being deprived of the same options given to voters at home, Justice Department lawyer Amy Zubrensky argued.

They "have the right to correct ballots," she said.

During two days of testimony, the federal government offered Kane a menu of what it called potential solutions - all of which the state opposed and all of which would have had to be done under a tight deadline, with Election Day less than two weeks away.

As an alternative to extending the deadline to count ballots past the Nov. 2 election, the Justice Department suggested the court require counties to send new ballots overseas by fax and receive them back from voters as faxes or as e-mail documents.

Pennsylvania election rules allow counties to send absentee ballots by fax to soldiers in war zones. That provision was used two years ago to reach members of the military stationed in Afghanistan. However, state rules do not allow for ballots to be returned via fax.

There is a good reason for that, said Gregory Dunlap, a deputy general counsel for Gov. Rendell. Pennsylvania's constitution guarantees the right to cast a ballot in secret, and many eyes would gaze on a fax sent to a county office, he said.

At one point, federal lawyers even suggested that Kane allow a scaled-down alternative, having counties send new ballots only to those service members who requested them.

In all, counties have sent about 26,700 absentee ballots to Pennsylvanians living abroad or serving in the military overseas. But it was unclear, even among top election officials, how many of these voters received ballots with Nader as a candidate.

Montgomery County sent 2,500 such ballots, Allegheny 1,300, and Philadelphia at least 2,300, testimony showed.

Philadelphia lawyer Mark Aronchick, a special election-law expert hired by the Rendell administration, called the number "a theoretically tiny universe of people."

County election officials testified that they would count Nader votes as write-in votes for him.

If the court required a new ballot, county election officials would be hard-pressed to comply, state lawyers argued. To do so, they would have to sacrifice time and resources needed to meet other demands, such as processing the crush of new voter-registration forms that this tight presidential contest has generated.

When overseas voters are weighed against that potential pool, "the scales don't even come close," Aronchick said.

Kane, a Clinton appointee who served as the state's top elections official for three years under Republican Gov. Tom Ridge, agreed. There was substantial evidence to suggest that the Justice Department alternatives "will harm the Pennsylvania election system and the public at large by undermining the integrity and efficiency of Pennsylvania's elections," she wrote.

A Justice Department spokesman said the agency had no comment last night on the possibility of an appeal.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/9973834.htm?1c

[Anker-Klanker]

I give up. I can't figure out what they're going to do.