The Department of Justice has filed a complaint in U.S. District Court seeking to ensure that New York counts ballots cast in the special Senate election from military voters.
The suit seeks extra time for military voters to return their ballots, and has been seized upon by Assemblyman Jim Tedisco (R) and venture capitalist Scott Murphy (D), who hope to fill Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's (D-N.Y.) vacant House seat. Some estimate the snafu could affect 2,000 voters in the district.
Tedisco and Murphy are locked in a neck-and-neck race, and both national parties have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the contest.
The complaint, filed against Gov. David Paterson (D) and the New York State Board of Elections, says the Empire State has not provided sufficient time for military voters to receive and cast their ballots. Department of Defense estimates say 30 days are required for round-trip delivery of ballots to and from service members overseas. State law says absentee ballots, no matter the postmark, must arrive at election offices within seven days of the election.
But election officials in nine of the ten counties that fall completely or partly within the district issued their ballots too late, giving service members less than 30 days to return their ballots to election offices.
That violates the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, a law set to ensure voters have a reasonable chance to cast ballots. The Justice Department is asking the court to order the deadline for receiving absentee ballots to extend to April 13, six days after the original deadline, in order to comply with federal law.
The Justice Department had asked the state Board of Elections to issue ballots sooner, a request that stalled when two board members -- both Democrats -- voted against it. The remaining two members, both Republicans, voted in favor of the measure, meaning no action was taken, according to a Board of Elections spokesman.
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"I applaud President Obama for directing the Justice Department to ensure our State BOE provides America's courageous service men and women who defend democracy every opportunity to ensure their right to vote is safeguarded," Tedisco said in a statement. He said Democratic members of the Board of Elections "should be ashamed of themselves."
Murphy's campaign was quick with its own vote of approval for the suit.
"Scott Murphy wants to ensure every vote counts in this special election, especially the votes of our fighting men and women in uniform overseas. Scott supports any action to ensure their votes are counted," spokesman Ryan Rudominer said.
I applaud both candidates for supporting the right of New Yorkers overseas in uniform to cast a meaningful ballot in this special election, an election that is sure to be very close. It's great to see that there is an important issue on which pretty much all people of goodwill can agree.
