McCain confident Va. military absentee votes will count

By Cheryl Chumley

Published: November 4, 2008

For service members and John McCain’s presidential campaign, the news from the U.S. District Court in Richmond late Tuesday was hopeful: absentee ballots from overseas military members that are still moving through the mail cannot be thrown out yet.

The matter of what to do with the estimated thousands of overseas votes that have not been received due to late ballot mailings will be decided at another hearing on Nov.10, said one attorney for the plaintiffs, McCain-Palin 2008, Inc. But in the meantime, any ballots received after Nov. 4 and before Nov. 14 must be stored and secured.

“It was an absolute win,” said Ashley Taylor, one attorney for the plaintiffs, in a brief telephone call shortly after Tuesday’s afternoon hearing. “In order to get to second base, you have to get to first … and the votes had to be secured and stored in order to be counted.”

The case is only hours old. McCain campaign officials filed a complaint on Nov. 3, claiming at least eight counties in Virginia did not mail absentee ballots in time for service members to return them by Election Day. The suit names three defendants with the Virginia State Board of Elections – the chairman, vice-chairman and secretary.

“States must send ballots to [overseas service members] with sufficient time to vote and return them,” the plaintiffs’ complaint read. “When a state sends an absentee ballot overseas too late for the recipient to vote and return it, the voter is clearly and effectively disenfranchised.”

The ballots should have been mailed by Sept. 20, the complaint reads, in order to meet a 45-day standard that was set in 2004 with the “report and recommendations of the United States Election Assistance Commission.”

The complaint named the counties of Arlington, Chesterfield, Fauquier and Loudoun, as well as the cities of Chesapeake, Richmond, Suffolk and Virginia Beach, as late-mailers.

Delegate Scott Lingamfelter, who represents portions of Prince William and Fauquier, promised an investigation would ensue.

“I’m going to call for the General Assembly to investigate,” he said, hours before the court even ruled on the complaint. “In America, when you say you’re going to stand up and defend this nation … it’s our obligation to make sure all their votes are counted.”

It’s a bureaucratic nightmare, he said, and the guilty culprits should be fired.

“This is just rank incompetence,” Lingamfelter said. “When bureaucrats can’t do something as simple as getting a ballot printed, a young soldier in a fox hole should not have to pay the price.”

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.