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Politics : Al Gore vs George Bush: the moderate's perspective -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Snowshoe who wrote (8753)	12/12/2000 1:22:39 AM
From: Math Junkie	Respond to of 10042

You're a person of integrity!

To: Snowshoe who wrote (8753)	12/12/2000 7:02:15 AM
From: long-gone	Respond to of 10042

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ELECTION 2000, Day 36 Appeals court upholds military ballots Federal panel says 2,400 absentee votes must be counted -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Jon E. Dougherty © 2000 WorldNetDaily.com A federal appeals court has upheld a lower court ruling that said 2,400 absentee ballots -- most from military personnel -- could not be thrown out in Florida because they arrived after Election Day. A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. District Court of Appeals in Atlanta agreed with U.S. District Judge Maurice Paul in Gainesville, Fla., who ruled last week that the ballots must be counted because to do so would be consistent with the Florida Supreme Court's earlier comments about the workings of the state's absentee laws. The case was brought initially as a lawsuit by Democratic voters as a way to prevent additional votes for George W. Bush from being tallied. "While Florida law seems to favor counting ballots, this change would take away the votes of thousands of Florida citizens -- including members of America's armed forces on duty outside of the country pursuant to the nation's orders -- who, to cast their ballots, just did what they were told by Florida's election officials," the appeals court wrote. The court rejected claims made by lawyers for the Democratic voters who argued that federal and state law -- as well as the U.S. Constitution -- require that votes be received by the close of polling stations on Election Day. "The decision seems inconsistent with the enacted laws of Florida," said Roger Bernstein, a New York-based lawyer for the plaintiffs, who said a further appeal was likely. On Friday, in a separate military-ballot case, U.S. District Judge Lacey Collier ordered the canvassing boards in Florida counties to accept some absentee ballots that had been rejected previously by local elections officials. In that case, also brought by Democratic voters, 1,547 overseas absentee ballots -- about 40 percent of the total Florida received -- had been thrown out by county elections workers, mostly because they lacked either a date or a signature, or in some cases because they were not filed by registered voters. According to the order, Collier said the ballots should not have been discarded simply because they had no postmark. Furthermore, he ruled that federal write-in ballots must be accepted, even if there was no formal request for a write-in ballot. "It is truly an unfortunate circumstance when a citizen of the United States is denied the fundamental right to vote, whether residing in one of the several states or residing overseas," Collier wrote in his ruling. "It is even more unfortunate when a vote cast by a member of the armed forces serving abroad is rejected for no legitimate or compelling reason." Yesterday, WorldNetDaily contacted a sampling of Florida counties to determine how many absentee ballots and federal write-in ballots had been discarded: Palm Beach County -- A canvassing board spokesman said the elections supervisor was out until next week and could not provide any figures. Broward County -- Canvassing officials said they had not discarded any federal write-in ballots. Leon County -- Officials discarded 51 military absentee ballots, 14 of which were federal write-in ballots, according to Lynn Priestly, a spokeswoman for the county elections board. Officials in Miami-Dade County did not return calls. Seminole County officials said elections personnel were in meetings throughout the day but would return calls; they failed to do so. The pair of federal court rulings regarding military and federal write-in ballots, analysts say, are a boost to the campaign of George W. Bush because military personnel traditionally tend to support Republican candidates. However, beginning with a five-page memo circulated by Democratic lawyer Mark Herron in November advising county canvassing boards how to reject military ballots, Democrats have sought to blunt the potential gain Bush could receive by challenging the validity of the ballots in the courts. worldnetdaily.com