[IP] more on Ridiculous ballots (unbelievable is a better word djf)
Begin forwarded message:
From: Travis Kalanick <travis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 21, 2004 5:33:16 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: [IP] Ridiculous ballots (unbelievable is a better word djf)
Reply-To: travis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Here's a weird one . . .Anyone have *any* idea why Republicans would be
fighting to get Nader *off* of the ballot?
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/
counties/c
hester_county/9973834.htm
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.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-ip@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of
David Farber
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 2004 1:31 PM
To: Ip
Subject: [IP] Ridiculous ballots (unbelievable is a better word djf)
Begin forwarded message:
From: Rosa Wu <rwu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 21, 2004 4:23:54 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx, declan@xxxxxxxx
Subject: Ridiculous ballots
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OHIO_VOTING?SITE=OHCOD&SECTION=HO
ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Photographs of the problem are available at:
http://www.aarong.thinkcomputer.com/a
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as travis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at:
http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/