ELECTION 2000, Day 24
Veterans venting
on military votes
American Legion seeks absentee count,
urges Harris to issue 'clarifying opinion'
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By Jon E. Dougherty
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
The American Legion has called on Florida's secretary of state to issue a "clarifying opinion" regarding hundreds of military absentee ballots that were tossed out by county canvassing boards because they lacked postmarks.
In a Nov. 22 letter to Secretary of State Katherine Harris, Robert W. Spanogle, the national adjutant for the Legion, said a previous ruling by the Florida Supreme Court "opened the window for the previously invalidated overseas absentee ballots submitted by members of the United States Armed Forces to be counted by election officials in all Florida counties."
"The American Legion is emphatic that immediate action needs to be taken to ensure that these ballots completed and mailed by U.S. military personnel stationed abroad are counted," Spanogle said.
The Legion's adjutant noted that on Nov. 20, Florida Attorney General Bob Butterworth sent a memo to local elections boards asking them to "revisit" the issue of military absentee ballots "and award these reported vote totals, if appropriate."
Butterworth was joined by Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman in suggesting that local boards should "give the benefit of the doubt to ballots coming in from military personnel. ..."
Yet, as of yesterday, hundreds of those ballots had still not been counted, even as Secretary of Defense William Cohen tasked the Pentagon's inspector general to find ways to improve military balloting for overseas personnel.
Also, the campaign of Gov. George W. Bush has filed lawsuits in five Florida counties, seeking to force them to re-examine military ballots previously discarded for no postmarks or other allegedly non-disqualifying reasons.
Noting that the Pentagon is responsible for getting ballots to and from personnel stationed overseas, Spanogle said, "American troops are deployed to more than 130 countries and aboard ships on the high seas. They have no control over the system that processes and delivers their mail."
The Legion also said that "in recent days," military officials have publicly stated that too often mail from ships and troops serving on "peacekeeping" missions cannot be postmarked because no such military postal facilities exist.
And, as WorldNetDaily has reported since before the election, perhaps tens of thousands of military personnel stationed overseas never got requested ballots in the first place.
"The American Legion, a strong advocate for military personnel, asked Florida's secretary of state to weigh in on this important issue before the votes of many service personnel are totally abandoned," said a separate Legion statement.
"This is not a political issue. It is an issue of what is right and just," Spanogle said in his letter.
Spanogle also said the Legion was considering filing legal action to ensure the integrity of military absentee ballots and to ensure they are counted if they are legal under state law.
"The men and women whose votes have been discarded are in fact the protectors of freedom and democracy. They have guaranteed the right of the citizens of the United States to vote throughout the history of this nation," Spanogle told Harris. "I trust you will agree we don't want to send them a message that their vote doesn't count."
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