Saturday December 9 7:28 PM ET Judge Refuses To Toss Military Votes
By BILL KACZOR, Associated Press Writer
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A federal judge Saturday refused to throw out
about 2,400 overseas ballots, most of them cast by military personnel, that
were received up to 10 days after the Nov. 7 election.
The decision was immediately appealed to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals (news - web sites) in Atlanta, said Roger Bernstein, a lawyer
representing six of 13 individual Democratic voters who brought the suit. He
said a request had been made for oral argument Monday.
Republican George W. Bush (news - web sites) received 1,575 votes among
the contested ballots, compared with 836 for Democrat Al Gore (news -
web sites). The difference is more than enough to change the outcome of the
election.
The suit claimed state and federal laws as well as the U.S. Constitution
require all ballots to be received by the close of the polls on Election Day and
provide no exception.
Florida's administrative code, however, requires election officials to count
ballots mailed on or before election day as long as they are received within
10 days after the election.
U.S. District Court Judge Maurice Paul found the 10-day rule should be
considered the equivalent of a federal court order although it was adopted as
part of a consent decree between the state and federal governments rather
than a court order.
Although the Florida Legislature failed to put the extension in law, it ``was
fully involved in attempting to enact statutes to satisfy the federal decree.''
Paul also noted federal officials have known Florida and seven other states
allow the post-election acceptance of ballots and yet have sued none of them.
``Congress did not intend ... to impose irrational scheduling rules on state and
local canvassing officials and certainly did not intend to disenfranchise voters
whose only reason for not being able to have their ballots arrive by the close
of election day is that they were serving their country overseas,'' Paul wrote.
dailynews.yahoo.com |
