Democrats disenfranchise military voters in NY 20 race

The special election in New York's 20th district is extremely tight and it looks like the absentee ballot count may constitute the difference. The problem lies in the fact that some of the military voters won't have their ballots counted because the Democratic members of the State Election Board purposely chose not to send ballots to them soon enough to allow return by the deadline. Hans von Spakowksy at National Review Online notes this attempt.

The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, which is responsible for enforcing the federal statute that guarantees the right of overseas citizens and military personnel to vote by absentee ballot, contacted the New York State Board of Elections and requested that they issue their ballots sooner for this race. The two Republican members of the board voted to support this request. Yet the two Democratic members of the board, shamefully enough, voted against doing so. Were they trying to disenfranchise military voters?

The Justice Department then filed a federal lawsuit on March 24 against the election board and the governor of New York. But the requested remedy was nowhere near what should have been asked for to remedy this problem, and didn’t include any of the measures that we successfully asked for from other courts when I was at the Division coordinating DOJ’s enforcement of this statute.

The only thing DOJ leaders essentially asked for (and got in a consent decree) was an extension of time for the receipt of overseas ballots, from April 7 to April 13. In other words, despite the fact that almost every expert in this area now recommends at least a 45-day transit time for absentee ballots for military voters, Justice asked only for 30.

It is hard to fathom what the two Democratis members of that boars were thinking other than that they knew the military skews Republican and didn't want to count those votes. There is always partisan politics involved in elections and while it is always wrong, using administrative power to quash votes from soldiers on the battlefield is disgraceful.

Here are the names of the two partisans who put politics above patriotism.

Co-Chair Douglas A. Kellner / Co-Chair Evelyn J. Aquila
Email the SBOE info@elections.state.ny.us