My home county is routinely throwing out absentee ballots from overseas military because of a technicality in the law.
Fairfax General Registrar Rokey Suleman said Thursday that he had had to reject some of the ballots because of a Virginia law passed in 2002. That law — then called Senate Bill 113, sponsored by then-state Sen. Bill Bolling — requires that when an overseas citizen wants to request an absentee ballot and cast a vote with the same paperwork, it requires not only a witness signature but the current address of the witness.
The McCain campaign said there’s not even a space for the witness to list an address. Suleman agreed; he said that the federal document was changed in recent years and that the space for the witness address was removed. But the Virginia law hasn’t changed.
This type of thing happens every year and it’s simply shameful. There’s simply no excuse for military personnel to be denied the right to vote.
Marc Ambinder muses, “Democrats insist they’re biased towards access… so will they try to intervene on behalf of these voters?” I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Update (Alex Knapp):
A follow-up from Marc Ambinder indicates that these votes will be counted after all. Apparently the address is only required in the case where the ballot doubles as an application for an absentee ballot. So as long as the application for the ballot is received by election day as well, the votes should be counted.
