Inept: PJM Readers Knew Illinois Failed Military Voters, but DOJ Didn’t
When I reported at PJM that military ballots in New York failed to mail just three weeks before the election, I described it as surreal. Surreal became tragic when considering how badly the DOJ dropped the ball. They failed to do anything about the problem for eight days after learning about it.
Now it has gotten much worse. I can report that Illinois has at least 25 counties which failed to mail military ballots in compliance with federal law. And DOJ never had a clue. The DOJ, charged with oversight, never detected the failure. To military families and servicemembers, rage is the only appropriate response.
I first reported over a week ago at PJM that ballots did not mail in parts of Illinois. All day long Wednesday, DOJ attorneys breathlessly pursued information about Illinois. I have obtained communications from DOJ and emails related to this panicked DOJ inquiry. They reveal that as of Wednesday, DOJ still didn’t know what was going on in Illinois 25 days after the September 18 mailing deadline — even though PJM did on October 7.
It’s time for members of Congress besides Senators Charles Schumer and John Cornyn to start demanding answers.
Bob Delaney, the St. Clair County clerk, outright refused to mail nearly 1,500 military ballots until October. He had hoped to include a GOP-spoiling Constitution Party candidate to the ballot. The spoiler never had a chance of getting in the race, and the ballots never mailed to military voters. Whether DOJ will act against such nakedly partisan motives remains to be seen.
Some like to speculate that the failure to enforce the MOVE Act must be intentional. They think DOJ is trying to help fading Democratic hopes. They say President Obama wants to help home state Democrats. For now, I tend to disagree, as would anyone who has ever worked inside the Voting Section at DOJ as I have. Everyone who works there knows exactly what the problem is: a broken enforcement system managed with a total lack of urgency.
In the spring, the Pentagon sent the DOJ a draft for waiver guidance to issue to the states. Waivers are available to states to opt out of the MOVE Act for one year, for good cause. The Pentagon wanted to give states some sense of when waivers might be justified, how they should structure their ballot mailing programs, and what would result in a denied waiver. They sent a draft to the DOJ.
The DOJ never wrote back with suggestions.
Because there was no guidance, states were left waiting and had no idea what to do. They failed to fix their laws, applied for waivers, and were denied in some instances. But the broken state systems were in place for the elections, without any chance for repair under DOJ guidance.
Again, the inability to move a document from point A to point B will come as no surprise to anyone has worked inside the Voting Section. Memos on important cases have sat gathering dust in the military voting pipeline for weeks, sometimes months. This peculiar inability to make a decision or to take decisive action is well-known and fully understood. There is also a history of aversion to entering a courtroom to litigate a case (though I’ll bet Arizona Governor Jan Brewer wonders why that wasn’t an issue in the parts of the Justice Department attacking her anti-illegal alien laws).
The law should be rewritten to provide that election officials who fail to comply with the deadline, shall be parachuted into war zones with the ballots> They will be charged with finding the registered troops, handing them their ballots, retrieving them after they’ve been marked and bringing them home in time to be counted.
Great suggestion…. or they should be fired.
There have to be state, federal laws that have been violated.
These people must be held accountable and made to explain their actions , to the public in general, military specifically and dutifully punished.
The people involved should be fired, no benefits, no references and jail time.
MILITARY FAMILIES NEED TO STAND UP AND DEMAND ANSWERS AND SOLUTIONS!!!! Of course that will never happen, just complain, do nothing.
I’m not an Attorney (nor do I play one, anywhere), but this appears to be malfeasance to the point of criminal neglect. The voting districts had plenty forewarning of the law regarding mailed ballots. The districts had extensions, in many cases. Yet they still failed to perform their lawful duties. Holder’s DOJ, more than any other, is aware of the law and the reasons for it, yet still fail to enforce the law. Obama is the final authority in the enforcement of the Law. These actions, in combination, appear to be willful and warrant investigation and prosecution. Should Congress fail to prosecute these violations, it would be entirely appropriate for those denied their rightful ballots to file suit against everyone involved, beginning at their individual District level, and demand rectification and restitution. To willfully violate ones Right to vote, or undermine it by failing to investigate fraudulent voting, is the greater violator than the bank robber in that they are violating an Enumerated Constitutional Right.
So tell me, is it possible that an organized group with access to that list of military personnel requesting ballots could vote in their place? After all, the names have conveniently been gathered by those who chose not to mail the ballots. What are the chances of getting caught? How could that be audited? Would it be?
Interesting question raised by some here: Given that an election for federal office is involved, has a federal statute been violated? If so, who has standing to initiate criminal, or civil, action?
Seems like an ideal political issue to push in Illinois and New York. What is the attitude being expressed by counties and states involved? You’re members of the military: we don’t care about your lives, so why should we care about your votes? Can’t imagine what the downside would be to pounding state officials even remotely connected with this over the next 20 days, and after. Can’t imagine any state official wanting the role of explaining this while under fire.
It must come like a slap in the face. Good enough to risk your life for your country, but not important enough for your vote to count.
Our men and women in service overseas deserve better.
And old enough to vote, but not old enough to drink. and 3.2 beer on post, still?
Politicos could get away with so much under the guise of ineptness.
They would be inept if they forgot to count the ballots from the cemeteries and abandoned warehouses.
Mark Kirk is a vet, and is in the reserve. Wonder if his military connection causes someone’s ineptness.
Can’t someone request a court ordered Stay until all military ballots have been overnight shipped and delivered and returned via overnight mail to each member of the military voting Absentee? After those ballots can be verified received by the appropriate county heads only then the regular polls can be opened but not before……why can’t this be done? Much is at stake and Obama and Holder are going to do everything in their power to prevent the miltary from voting. This is a gross miscarriage of justice and as far as I am concerned, certainly grounds for impeaching both Eric Holder and President Obama. They planned this job now they should have to pay for it. This is nothing short of treason or worse!
I hope that everyone who has posted on here and all who see this article will join me in demanding that your Senator(s) see to it that these ballots are mailed in toto and that no election results can be posted until they have diligently been counted. Unlike the person who wrote this article, I DO believe it was intentional that two of the biggest Democrat strongholds, New York and Illinois, failed to send out ballots to the men and women who lay down their lives for us all.
You have no faith in St Clair County clerk Bob Delaney’s “system.” All military ballots previously THOUGHT to be unmailed will be miraculously found in clerk Bob’s car trunk on Wednesday, Nov 3rd, dutifully cast 95% for the Democrat candidate (100% MIGHT look phony). Add ‘em up Bob! As for New York…same “system”, different clerks.
Who has standing ?
Infringement of the Right to Vote of an American in a combat zone should be charged as Treason, with a mandatory penalty of death by hanging upon conviction.
Aren’t minorities “overrepresented” in the U.S. military? I’m sure a creative lawyer could make a civil rights case out if this — and I’m sure plenty would, if this weren’t Obama’s administration. At the least, liberal media might be curious that an organization with a larger than average minority profile is being deliberately disenfranchised.
There is a very simple solution for this matter. If said state does not comply with mailing out the absentee ballots 45 days prior to the election, NO wavers granted, then ALL of that state’s votes are not counted in the following election.
If this was the law, suddenly there would be mass compliance.
>If said state does not comply with mailing out the absentee ballots 45 days prior to the election, NO wavers granted, then ALL of that state’s votes are not counted in the following election. If this was the law, suddenly there would be mass compliance.<
Absolutely!
Bulgaricus #11, brilliant solution.
could not have said it better… this is what should happen THIS time–to be a lesson on future elections…. But will they make it happpen, Nope, but hey if they wanted a bailout to happen they could make that happen in 2 weeks time. funny how it all works
See Article 2 of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
“Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.”
Might this sanction be applicable in this case?
All this outrage is for naught. When folks elect people who believe in selective application of laws based upon political criteria, no law is worth a dang.
“It’s not the votes that count. It’s who counts the ballots.” – Stalin
Make any election fraud a serious felony, and it will still not matter, if such are never prosecuted. This is the Obama administration’s fault. He chose Holder, and Holder simply will not prosecute. Everyone simply knows this and acts accordingly.
They are going to steal these elections. The ballot box will fail, and folks will be forced to reach for the option of last resort… the ammo box. Tyranny always ends in blood, either the victims’ or the tyrants. Or both.
The Revolutionary War was fought by just 2% of the population… the fed up portion.
Are not all the States having problems getting the ballots to our military blue
States? We need to go after the Secretary of State of each State that does not
comply with the law.
Can Congress hold hearings for them also?
We seem to have collusion at the State and Federal levels of government.
Elections matter!!
Another solution:
Chane the law to say all those ballots must be accepted for at least 45 days AFTER the mailing date, regardless of how late they mail. If that puts them well beyond election day, too bad.
Somehow I think they would find a way to mail on time under those requirements.
this is the new amerika, run by the new breed of amerikans.
affirmative action educated.
entitled mentality.
i would bet good $$$ that more illegal votes will be counted than military votes,
especially in blue states.
no enforcement/protection of voting rights
refusal to enforce border security
failure to respond (for months) to Gulf disaster
the list goes on and on.
a constant and purposeful disregard for the law.
i would say he is a traitor, if indeed he was an American.
he couldn’t play little league baseball w/ that piece of paper his
minions wave around as proof of his legitimacy.
i have a question. if something terrible befalls the citizens of this country,
directly due to his incompetence and unwillingness to act,
is this pretend prezidente going to man up and accept responsibility,
or just make more excuses?
i would bet $$$ on that one too.
This situation begs for immediate, coordinated action by state, federal,and military jurisdictions!
The President himself should issue an immediate Executive Order requiring all local, state, federal, and military officials to package and dispatch within 24 hours the necessary absentee ballots along with the properly certified and required election officials and poll observers to deliver the absentee ballots to all military personelle.
Our military men and women should then be assisted in processing their votes during the interim up to and including November 2nd. No certification of elections results should be permitted until every military vote is counted!
After this crisis is managed and lasting damage minimized, the new Congress needs to conduct hearings and rip out this rotten bureaucratic mess in the voting section – it is obviously not working. I feel like an oil well has exploded and oil is spewing all over the military troops. Is this country going to go through more military vote stealing in a presidential election.
The person the author is gracious enough not to name is Rebecca J. Wertz. She is how she is decribed, and worse. I’d wager she alone is responsible for this mess. She just got promoted:
http://spectator.org/blog/2010/10/11/doj-promotes-military-ballot-o
They think DOJ is trying to help fading Democratic hopes. They say President Obama wants to help home state Democrats. For now, I tend to disagree, as would anyone who has ever worked inside the Voting Section at DOJ as I have. Everyone who works there knows exactly what the problem is: a broken enforcement system managed with a total lack of urgency.
I don’t know if it is the counties or the DOJ but it is very easy to find if it was intentional or not. Look at the proportion of Democratic counties who fail to send ballots. If it is stastitically significantly higher than the average then legal action should follow.
There’s no excuse for this to fall through the cracks, esp after the “Felons count, Marines don’t” scandal in Florida 2000:
“In the most shameful and painful act of the hand counts, the Democrats
on the ground, and their operators from the Democratic
National Committee and the state organization and the Gore campaign,
deliberately and systematically scrutinized for
challenge every military absentee ballot, and knocked out as many as
they could on whatever technicality they could find or
even invent.
Reports begin to filter out. The Democratic army of lawyers and
operatives marches into the counting room armed with a
five-page memo from a Democratic lawyer, instructing them on how to
disfranchise military voters. The lawyers and
operatives unspool reams of computer printouts bearing the names and
party affiliation of military voters. Those who are
Republicans are subject to particular and seemingly relentless scrutiny.
Right down to signatures on ballots being compared
with signatures on registration cards. A ballot bearing a domestic
postmark because a soldier had voted, sent his ballot home
to his parents and asked them to mail it in on time, is thrown out. A
ballot that comes with a note from an officer explaining
his ship was not able to postmark his ballot, but that he had voted on
time–and indeed it had arrived in time–is thrown out,
because it has no postmark.
The Democratic operatives are ruthless, focused. As one witness says,
“They had a clear agenda.”
Received late Wednesday, an e-mail forwarded from a Republican who
witnessed the counting of the Brevard County
overseas absentee ballots.
It is 11:30 PM (Tuesday) and I have just returned from the count of
absentee ballots, that started at 4PM. Gore had five
attorneys there, the sole objective was to disenfranchise the military
absentee voter. . . . They challenged each and every
vote. Their sole intent was to disqualify each and every absentee voter.
They constantly challenged military votes that were
clearly legitimate, but they were able to disqualify them on a
technicality. I have never been so frustrated in all my life as I
was to see these people fight to prevent our active duty Military from
voting. They succeeded in a number of cases denying
the vote to these fine Men and Women. This was a deliberate all out
assault on the Armed Forces solely to sustain the Draft
Dodger and his flunky. These people must have a hard time looking at
themselves in a mirror. . . . They denied a number of
votes postmarked Queens NY, ballots that were clearly ordered from
overseas, clearly returned from overseas, and verified
by the Post Office that DOD uses the Queens post office to handle
overseas mail, were denied because it didn’t say APO,
They denied military votes postmarked out of Jacksonville, Knowing full
well it came from ships at sea and was flown into
Jacksonville . . . .
http://www.mail-archive.com/cypherpunks@cyberpass.net/msg02434.html
Did you notice that they’re not sending ballots to military personnel in Democratic leaning states? How come they don’t seem to have this problem in Idaho or Oklahoma? Since men and women in the military tend to be more conservative, this is a cheap way to disenfranchise them. Our men and women in the military deserve much, much, better treatment than this.
Hope it’s not too late to reply to Libertyship46….”Did you notice that they’re not sending ballots to military personnel in Democratic leaning states? How come they don’t seem to have this problem in Idaho or Oklahoma?”
~~you’re kidding, right? It’s a pattern with the Progressive/Socialists.. ACORN registered felons, people with park bench addresses, even dead people. Do you think for one minute this is an accident? Not likely.
“Since men and women in the military tend to be more conservative, this is a cheap way to disenfranchise them.” BINGO! “Our men and women in the military deserve much, much, better treatment than this.”
I couldn’t agree with you more! This Administration is particularly hostile towards our Warriors — it’s an embarrassment.
Yours is one of the reasons for my reading PJM and the blogs.. You will notice, vulgar, incoherent, comments are nearly always from the ‘other side’-h
If there was a law that the military ballots had to be mailed when the absentee ballots for the non-military voters are mailed, the problem might be solved. If they failed to send out the military ballots with the others, NONE of the absentee ballots could be counted.
This is not failing to act this is deliberate action to fail. AT every location not meeting the deadline is criminal malfeasance, up to and including Holder! I would not put it past Obumer.
This must be a ‘black crime’; You know, like an ‘illegal’ alien.
“It’s time for members of Congress besides Senators Charles Schumer and John Cornyn to start demanding answers.”
Like, say, Sen. Durbin (D-IL) and Sen. Burris (D-IL). You’d think they’d be interested in the disenfranchisement of servicemen and service women IN THEIR OWN STATE?!
Oh, wait – I forgot. That’s a “D” in those parentheses. Never mind. I have my explanation.
I sent Senator Durbin – my Senator, Senator from Illinois – the following:
Illinois has failed to comply with the MOVE act. Scores of juristictions have failed to mail out ballots to active-duty personnel. It’s obscene that those who are risking the most to preserve our right to vote are likely to lose it in this election.
This is a well-known problem, especially at the Department of Justice. Sens. Schumer and Cornyn have publicized it. You are supposed to represent the citizens of Illinois. Why aren’t you doing something about this? Please move IMMEDIATELY to ensure that every possible step is taken to get ballots in the hands of our active-duty personnel.
When I tried to do the same at Sen. Burris’ web site, it said that since he was leaving office soon (which is true, he’ll be out after the election, there’s a special election to replace him) people should contact other elected officials and put links to their web sites up instead.
Oh, the DOJ had a clue alright. This was not only planned, but if you add to it the willful neglect of not clearing the voting rolls of the deceased then you can see how they (the dems) plan on stealing the upcoming election. Perhaps Queen Nancy wasn’t blowing smoke when she said they would keep congress.
First, if it is proven that the responsible public official acted in bad faith (such as for partisan purposes), there should be some prison time involved. Until the guilty pay a personal price, these games will continue.
Second, this is a good example why I am not a fan of big government. If something as basic as running honest elections, and ensuring that the military ballots get in the mail can’t get done, then why should we believe government can handle vastly more complicated issues (such as health care for 300 million plus persons)?
Third, this really, really angers me. I’m a vet and have two sons and a daughter-in-law on active duty. The thought of some political petty tyrant interfering with their right to vote makes me crazy.
Another dopey article: the ballots were held up because of this. While Illinois could have mailed out two versions of the ballot to cover however the court decided, it would then have had to arrange for every base that received the ballots to tell them which one the Illinois residents can use. However the whole purpose of mailing out the ballots so soon in the first place to the military is to accommodate soldiers who may be away from base for a lengthy period of time, so you would still have the issue of not being able to contact them in time to let them know which ballot they can use.
Also, can right wingers make up their mind about what’s the ultimate responsibilities of the states and what they are for the feds? During Katrina, right wingers screamed that it was the responsibility of the state and local government to have taken care of business, but in this case, they are now screaming that the feds should be responsible for Illinois not doing its job intelligently.
Because voting is in fact a federal issue. The US Constitution addresses voting in the 14th, 15th, 17th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 26th amendments. It is considered an important Constitutional right.
Those amendments you cited are not helpful here: there was widespread disenfranchisement of minority voters by states, aided by rogue judges until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the issue of overseas residents and military personnel wasn’t dealt with until much later with the 1986 Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.”
Do we refer to bank robbers as inept also? If you keep excusing all of their actions as inept, you are becoming an enabler.
It will be really cool when these same people are also in charge of making our doctors appointments.
Watch, now you’ll get arrested for “revealing government secrets” or disturbing the peace.
If x military ballots were sent out from a given state, and not submitted in time for the federal deadline, then x could be subtracted from the vote counts of all candidates who are in the same party as the state governor at the time of the election.
Military personnel need to stand up and fight this also…i is their vote that is being denied.
.as long as they are not concerned..it will continue.
J. Christian Adams. My favorite PJM writer. He’s the American I most look up to. But I think he misses the mark when he says the DOJ was inept. I think the DOJ knew precisely what was going on and did nothing about it. I think their reaction was criminal.
The naivete still exhibited by much of the right is impossible to be understated. Two or so months ago, I warned the staff at PJM when they asked for suggestions about election coverage. I said focus your coverage on vote stealing, vote suppressing, voter intimidating.
My warning: look out for ways Obama and Holder and ACORN type organizations try to steal votes. Well, sure as shootin’, not sending front line troops timely ballots is simply one obvious way of getting away with vote stealing (suppressing) free as birds; free as the Black Panthers got away with acts of voter intimidation last election day.
If the intentionality of the suppressing of the vote of the special group (the military defending freedom) can be proven, then no punishment is, in my opinion, too swift or too severe.
I realize the degree to which the left is panicking about the November 2 election. To me, though, it’s much in the same way kidnappers panic when they’re worried about either getting caught or not getting the ransom money. But too bad. If Holder can be proven to be behind this, then no punishment handed down by a judge too harsh. None. The scheme that I believe Holder and Obama greased along, knew was forming, yet did nothing to stop, to me, is worse, a thousand times worse, than what Eddie Slovic did in WW2. And their punishment should be twice as cruel and unusual.
Some people on TV say that middle America is angry, very angry. When Behar and Goldberg walk off the set because Bill O’Reilly brings up the fact that Muslim Extremists savaged America on 9/11, it further convinces me that the pressure has gotten to them. They’re unhinged. They hate America and they see their vision of a socialized America evaporating because the American people are reacting to ObamaSocialism like Americans.
The leftists progressive Obamunists sit there and spin their America-hating webs and think that the whole world revolves around them. Well, it doesn’t. In the whole confliguration of things, I’d say your average every day leftist communist/Obamunists are nothing but scurvy little spiders. On November 2, we’ll be stepping on a whole bunch of them. (paraphrase, It’s a wonderful life, 1946)
Perhaps they are hoping that people will demand the election results not be announced until military ballots are counted, so they can extend the lame duck session. This would give them more time to cram through their crooked legislation.
If they go along with holding the election results too easily as an answer to the problem, you will know this is their intention.