DEMOCRAT OFFICIAL IN VIRGINIA THROWING OUT MILITARY BALLOTS
This story is why I hate having to use an absentee ballot when I am deployed.
Fairfax general registrar Rokey Suleman said Thursday that he has had to reject some of the ballots because of a Virginia law passed in 2002. That law — then called Senate Bill 113, sponsored by then state Sen. Bill Bolling — requires that when an overseas citizen wants to request an absentee ballot and cast a vote with the same paperwork, it requires not only a witness signature but also the current address of the witness.
The McCain campaign said there’s not even a space for the witness to list an address. Suleman agreed; he said the federal document was changed in recent years and the space for the witness address was removed. But the Virginia law hasn’t changed.
In case you think the Democrat official in this story is just doing his job check out this story about how Virginia officials are loosening Virginia election laws to help college students vote.
This makes me mad as hell. Some low level Democrat bureaucrat is throwing out the ballots of deployed servicemen and women on a ridiculous technicality while other Virginia bureaucrats are cutting legal corners help college students vote.
It is not like this hasn’t happened before.
Yet another reason I hate the Democrat Party. It does everything it can to suppress the voice of those that defend this country.
[...] 24, 2008 by Scott W. Southern Appeal alerts us to this story: Fairfax general registrar Rokey Suleman said Thursday that he has had to [...]
[...] Bill Ayers will help them cheat! [...]
I am so tired of the Dems getting away with this stuff.
When you have guys like Bill Ayers, George Soros, and Howard Dean behind you it is no wonder that cheating is acceptable.
“Obama = Bill Ayers; Who Cares” at:
https://riggword.wordpress.com/
Thank you for your blog and the space to vent.
riggword
Joel,
Infuriating, yes (should you really expect anything less at this point?), but at least you and I can take some solace in the fact that Auburn got drilled last night.
Brian
Joel,
On one level, I agree with you — these ballots should definitely be counted.
However, on another level, you can’t blame the “low level Democrat official” — it’s not his job to re-write Virginia law, and when the law is clear on something, he is bound by his obligations as a civil servant to follow the law. You can claim it’s a technicality, but that seems to be quite the slippery slope. As you all argue ad nauseam (in the context of judges), it’s the legislature’s province to write the laws — a low-level Democratic official shouldn’t re-write the law any more than a judge should. Don’t you agree?
It’s the ‘Democratic’ Party by the way.
Would you described the other side as the ‘Republic Party’?
Perhaps it’s poetic justice that these votes get thrown out if that’s the maturity level we’re talking about here.
Would you described the other side as the ‘Republic Party’
Have you ever heard someone refer to themself as a “Republic?” No. I am a Republican. A person who is a member of the Democrat Party is, therefore, a Democrat. Is it really that difficult to comprehend? And is this minor grammar point really the best argument you can muster in refutation of the overall post?
‘Yet another reason I hate the Democrat Party.’
In that sentence, the word Democrat is used as an adjective. Just as in this sentence,
‘Yet another reason I hate the Republican Party.’
the word Republican is used as an adjective.
There’s no adjective in the English language called Democrat. That is a noun. It happens that the word Republican functions as a noun and as an adjective. But this is not true of the word Democrat.
Would the grammar be correct if it read, “The ancient Greeks had a democrat form of government.”
It wouldn’t. The word democrat, whether big D or small D, is not an adjective. It is a noun. The adjective associated with democrat is democratic, whether big D or small d.
So I have to stand by my original claim.
Moishe,
Really, who cares?
Mark,
You would have a point if the same standards were being applied to the college students that were the subject of the second story I linked to.
College students, who are generally more left leaning, get corners cut to facilitate their voting yet the ballots of military members are held to the highest level of scrutiny.
The fact that the ballot of some Soldier, Sailor, Marine, or Airman deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan is having a higher level of scrutiny applied to their ballot than some wet nosed spoiled college student makes me want to vomit… or kick someone’s ass.
Didn’t the same thing happen in Jacksonville, FL in 2000?
Joel,
So, assuming the Norfolk registrars aren’t following the law, you are suggesting that the appropriate remedy is for the Farifax registrar also not to follow the law? Two wrongs don’t make a right, Joel. Again, this is a slippery slope, the logical conclusion of what you are suggesting is anarchy.
Look on the bright side. We’re all doomed.
Virginia Miliary Absentee Ballot Problem Will Be Solved
Great news, Jay. This is the way to resolve these issues — address them head-on; not by tying the issue to an unrelated ballot counting question.
Also worth noting that the law in question was written by current (Republican) Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling when he was a legislator.
Joel,
It is, for what it’s worth, the “Democratic Party.” It meant something to me and Zell Miller, James Jackson and a few others; whatever you think of our other companions here. There remain one or two of us who aren’t quite ready to conceed it to the scoundrels.
That said, you’re absolutely right to detest the attitude of the national-level party, and so many of the smaller figures among it. The serving military should be the #1 group to have its votes counted.
Of course, as the recent Military Times poll showed, they favor McCain 7-3.
So, you know, they must be destroyed — and by the creeping rascal who who chooses to occupy a place at the counting house, instead of a place on the front.
Those who channel Joe McCarthy’s use of the “Democrat Party” nonsense may as well hang a sign around their necks announcing, “I am a boor and an ignoramus”. Perhaps Joel and his ilk should organize the Ignoram Party.
Why does anyone think that the use of non-standard Enlish is persuasive? I don’t understand.
Excuse me. That should be English. My G key has been sticking. Perhaps my keyboard is channeling Sarah Palin.
“announcing, “I am a boor and an ignoramusâ€.”
John, any supporter of a ticket with Joe Biden on it should be cautious about speaking about boors or ignoramuses.
Funny how you Republikans get all worked up about these military votes not being counted, when the problem is that these military members voted in a way that violated the absentee voting rules of their home state.
You did not complain when elderly American, African American, and Latino American were disenfranchised from vote in Florida in 2000 for failing to follow ‘letter of the law’ with voting rules.
Commenter Mark above has exposed the hypocrisy in this matter regarding the way conservatives interpret the ‘letter of the law’ on the Supremes Court. There is clearly a racial, cultural, and social-economic bias and insensitivity in this double standard as well.
Commenter Moesha Zuckerman and John of Nashville have exposed you too. That is a Joe MacCarthy tactic that has been re-introduced by one of his followers (Carl Rove) in order to demean and belittle honorable Democrats.
Finally, Donald R McClarey, you are known for making all these predictions. But you have nothing to say as each day passes and your predictions prove to be wrong? President Barack Obama is coming and I personally can not wait!!
“Finally, Donald R McClarey, you are known for making all these predictions.”
Glad you’ve been paying attention BA! Come election day we will find out if my belief that most of the polls are off because they have given Dems too much of a partisan id in most of the polls of between 5-12.
Zogby, hardly my favorite pollster, to say the least, had this to say today in spite of Obama +9 in his poll.
“McCain’s improvement in the poll, and the fact that there is still a notable slice of the electorate that is either yet undecided or soft in their support of one candidate or the other, indicates that anything could still happen in this race,” said Pollster John Zogby.”
This is called CYA. The Zogster has been around long enough that I think he is uncertain that the polls, including his, are giving an accurate read.
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1608
I’ve also kept track of state polls and I’ve noticed anomalies in some of them and what most of the national polls are showing. For example, the well regarded St. Cloud poll in Minnesota today shows Obama up by five in that state. Prior to the 2004 election the same poll showed Kerry up by 4 over Bush. If Obama is up by 6 or 7 nationally, leave alone some of the wilder polls which show a 10-14 Obama lead, Obama would not be up only by 5 in Minnesota.
Perhaps I’m dead wrong and the polls are accurate, but I don’t think so. At any rate, we shall all find out soon enough.
“Come election day we will find out if my belief that most of the polls are off because they have given Dems too much of a partisan id in most of the polls of between 5-12.” should have been
“Come election day we will find out if my belief that most of the polls are off because they have given Dems too much of a partisan id in most of the polls of between 5-12 is correct.”
This post at the Hedgehog Report has a good discussion of the question of partisan id in polls.
http://www.hedgehogreport.com/?p=8620
Donald,
If 2006 was Dem +2, do you honestly think that, given Bush’s abysmal approval ratings (already low in 2006, but now much, much lower), a bias of Dem +6 or so is way off the mark?
Yes I do Mark. First, Bush isn’t running. Second, Palin has energized the Republican base, something that did not happen in 2006 when Republicans stayed home in droves. Third, the Democrats in 2006 did not have the PUMAs to contend with. I’d say the Dem advantage this year is 3.5-4 or lower.
Oh, now I see why Zogby made the CYA comment. In one day in his poll Obama goes from +9 to +3.
http://www.drudgereport.com/
Now I have always had great disdain for Zogby as a pollster. However, I suspect most of the other pollsters are little better this year due to incorrect partisan weighting. We shall see.
Palin may have energized the Republican base, but Obama has energized the Democratic base. In 00 and 04, Democrats were not voting for Gore or especially Kerry; rather they were voting against Bush.
You’re right that Bush isn’t running, but Bush wasn’t running in 06 either. Fair or not, when times are bad, the incumbent party tends to suffer and big.
I’d also pay attention to the voter registration numbers. Although we can’t get an accurate picture of the number of new registrants, there’s no question that the number of Democrats registering has far outstripped the number of Republicans. And, early voting strongly suggests that the new Democrats are not just registering but actually voting.
One other comment…if the margin stays like it has for the next week, it may end up being a self-fulfilling prophecy. As Karl Rove pointed out, there tends to be a bandwagon effect as some on the fence will base their vote based on who they think is going to win.
This is a highly unusual year Mark, and I think none of the usual rules apply. I also consider myself a political realist. In 1996 I knew Dole was doomed by Clinton’s post convention numbers. In 2000 when the DUI revelation came the weekend before the election I feared that Gore who had been closing fast was likely to prevail, as he did in the popular vote. In 2004 I never believed the polls that had Bush up by six or seven points and always thought it was going to be very, very close. This year my instincts tell me that the polls are wildly inaccurate, and that this is currently a 3-5 point race with Obama up and McCain closing.
As to the voter registrations, it is one thing to have people register, it is another thing to have them vote. As to early voting, it all depends whether these are new voters, or simply more long time voters voting early. Judging from this revelation from Acorn, http://www.newser.com/story/40765/acorn-inflated-new-voter-count-by-850k.html, I have my doubts as to how accurate the stats are as to new registrations.
I’ll stipulate that we have no idea how accurate the registration numbers are, but there’s no question that more new Democrats are registering than Republicans. And, I agree that registration and actual voting are two different things (that’s why it’s relevant that Democrats are excited about Obama in a way that they haven’t been excited about a candidate in my lifetime).
Again, a big part of McCain’s problem right now is perception. Even if your estimate is correct, the public does not believe it’s that close right now. And, it doesn’t help when longtime Republicans like William Weld are fleeing like rats off of a sinking ship; this problem is compounded by the fingerpointing stories regarding the handling of Gov Palin during the campaign.
Like I said, the numbers may not be right, but they may well become a self-fulfilling prophecy.