A grassroots military service organization is urging the Department of Justice to intervene immediately of behalf of 3,200 Virginia and overseas voters from whose votes were not counted in this year's election.
Bob Carey is a senior fellow at the National Defense Committee, which was founded to protect the inherent legal and constitutional rights of military personnel and their dependents. He says the Department of Justice has regularly required states to send military absentee ballots out at least 30 days prior to an election. However, he notes in this election cycle, nearly 12,500 military and overseas ballots requested from the state of Virginia were not sent out by that deadline. As a result, Carey adds 3,285 ballots were not returned in time for Election Day. "We think it's imperative that their votes be received, cast, and counted," he suggests. "And if the Virginia local election officials fail to get the absentee ballot out in time, then they should be making accommodations in order to be able to receive those ballots in a timely fashion." It is completely irrelevant, according to Carey, that the 3,285 ballots would not have affected the outcome of the presidential election. "If we say that they don't matter unless they can change the election, then we've established a precedent that military votes don't matter -- and I think that's wrong," he contends. Carey believes it is quite possible that some of the ballots might have an impact on races for other offices, including a couple of very tight congressional races in the state. He is urging the Justice Department to force the Commonwealth of Virginia to accept military ballots received at least 30 days after they were sent out.
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