New York Fails To Mail Ballots to Active Military, DOJ Yet To Act
The 2010 debacle involving military ballots just became surreal.
New York City and Westchester Country are but two of the several New York jurisdictions which admitted that they failed to mail military ballots. This fact should have been known on October 2, when the Justice Department should have marched into court seeking an immediate order that the ballots be sent — preferably by rapid express mail.
Instead, a Justice Department press flack says they are in “urgent discussions.” Great. Congress should ask why they aren’t in urgent “litigation.” New York had already received a waiver, which DOJ supported, allowing the state to mail ballots on October 1. They couldn’t even meet that relaxed deadline.
In 2008, the Justice Department engaged in Keystone Kops enforcement of military voting rights. Their failure to enforce, aggressively, federal laws protecting military voters resulted in 17,000 wasted, late, or lost military ballots. Amazingly, Justice Department enforcement of military voting rights has only gotten worse in 2010.
This deterioration wouldn’t have anything to do with the change in administrations, would it?
Senator John Cornyn of Texas laid down the gauntlet this past weekend to Fox News:
If DOJ does not file a suit to right this wrong as soon as the courts open on Tuesday, then we will know once and for all that DOJ is not serious about safeguarding military voting rights.
Cornyn has particular interest in military voting rights. He has blocked the nomination of James Cole for deputy attorney general because of the lax enforcement of military voting rights. He has asked for basic information from Justice — which Justice has been unwilling to provide — about which states are not in compliance with the law. Now, we learn that DOJ obviously didn’t know about New York (and Illinois).
Even if DOJ rushes to sue New York on Tuesday, Cornyn shouldn’t expect much. DOJ sued other states like Wisconsin, and then rewrote the federal statute Cornyn sponsored in a settlement that shortened the congressional mandate of 45 days.
The worst part of this? Justice knew, or should have known, months ago which states were not in compliance with the law. Months ago, election officials in many states like Maryland and Wisconsin literally made statements that they would not be in compliance with the law. Justice did nothing but sit and wait.
What an outrage. Michelle Obama always touts herself as a friend to military families, too — by proclaiming loud and wide that they need more mental health services. That’s the condescending attitude this administration has for the military.
Can this sick-of-being-condescended-to military wife give you a big Oo-rah?!
Previous articles said the employee responsible for this junk is:
rebecca.j.wertz@usdoj.gov
It should be obvious to all that the DOJ is merely the DOO – Department of Obama. First filing suit against the State of Arizona for ENFORCING laws already on the government’s books, now this: Failure to prosecute anyone and everyone who would stand between a soldier and his/her right to decide who should be his/her Commander in Chief. Kudos to Senator John Cornyn of Texas for trying to do what is right.
military families need to ban together on this. Each needs to email rebecca, question Obama in the media etc. If they do not take astand this will not stop.
I wonder if a change of adm will solve anything…this is not the first time, although maybe the worse, that this has happened.
There needs to be a stand taken by military families and friends.
The people that meed mental help programs are the people that support the DOJ and Obama
And they most likely never will.
It’s obvious that the democrats are colluding to bypass all checks and balances while they hold a monopoly, and this kind of action should be no surprise to anyone. This is outrageous, but I do not expect any better from this administration, nor from the democrat party.
The real question is the conservatives and republicans, and whether they will provide some congressional oversight, especially after the November elections. It’s up to we the people not only to get our candidates elected, but also to hold them accountable. We can add this malfeasance to the long list of things the new congress should start investigating.
The DOJ can keep doing it’s crazy, radical practices, but there will hell to pay after January when the new House takes office. I expect Mr. Holder will be spending a lot of time trying to explain his and his people’s actions over thest couple of years. I wouldn’t be surprised if he quits after the elections on November 2nd to try to escape being raked over the coals.
We already knew that the Obama’s didn’t, don’t and will never support our military. I don’t know why anyone is surprised by these actions, it’s been expected since the last couple of elections have been getting worse for military votes, because the liberals know that it’s an overwhelming group of votes for conservatives. The DoD has been comlaining for years that certain(blue) states were doing everything possible to delay or eliminate military votes.
My son is the voting officer for his base in Afghanistan and has been hounding everyone to get the ballots to the soldiers. He is trying every way possible to get the soldiers their constitutional right to vote. I think the Tea Party will make up for it in this election, but these people need to be held accountable for this travesty to our hero’s in uniform.
ED B., Thank you and your son for his service and especially for taking the responsibilities of the Voting Officer. This must be extremely frustrating
for you both. It is for me. It is blatant disregard of his service and all the others who serve that they should be deprived of their right to vote in what could very well be the most important election of our lives.
Not to be cynical or anything, Chris, but when there are several actually competitive races in New York, what else would you expect?
#6 Ed B is right and wrong from my point of view.
Right because he states that the Obama’s (indeed, anyone on the left) didn’t, don’t and will never support our military (certainly not their voting rights).
Wrong, from my point of view, because he seems to think that something will change after the new House is seated. (In my opinion) These are established beaurocracies (DOJ, DOE, DOT, etc…). Regardless of the party in power, there is a liberal leaning.
All federal monies to the State of New York should be immediately suspended, and/or all elections suspended until every single ballot for our servicemen are accounted for; require that all following conditions are met:
a] all ballots are sent out
b] all ballots reach their destination
c] all filed ballots are returned
d] all returned votes are logged
Suggestion:
class action by the military personnel for PREMEDITATED VIOLATION OF THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS.
But, but, but, we can’t let the racist imperialist Islamophobic murderers vote!
/Channeling the NYT and the rest of the MSM.
it is painfully apparent that Micky Mouse is running the DOJ. When is Congress going to do something about an administration that gives the finger to our brave military men and women? It is a crying shame at that lack of commitment to guard our most precious act of voting in the US of A. Holder is a disgrace to America!
DOJ has done nothing? No one is surprised at that. How about the New York State Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, our next sainted governor? Well, no surprise there, either. What a sorry collection of . . . lawyers.
The Justice Department has brought dishonor, and shame on it’s self. It can not be trusted, and must be cleaned up by Honorable Americans.
The Justice Department breaking the law willingly smells of Treason to me. Is Holder a BLT Marxist too?
TREASON, ALL OF THEM….LIKE THEY DID’T HAVE THE TIME… OBAMA CALLING THE SHOTS AGAIN…D.O.J. RIGHT BEHIND….WHY DO WE LET THIS GO ON & ON & ON.THIS IS THE LOWEST OF LOWS..THEY DON’T GIVE A @!$#.
This is how it works in Arizona: Mom of overseas U.S. Navy man sends him application for mail-in-ballot. He signs it and mails it back to mom — in expedited mail, e.g., fed express. When mom receives early ballot for son delivered to her home, she expedites the ballot to said son/daughter, who fills it out and expedites it back to mom, who in turn mails it in to the local recorder’s office.
This may not work in all arenas, such as active combat locales, but it will enable thousands of overseas servicemen to vote and have those votes counted.
When the government is actively working to crush voter turnout of sectors within a population it deems potentially threatening to its incumbency, the people will have to get creative in order to cut them off at the pass, so to speak.
This failure by New York is outrageous. Families at Fort Drum should protest VISIBLY. Has John McHugh abandoned them now that he is SecArmy? Not that there are not many other active duty service members from New York, but Ft. Drum is NY’s premier military base, home of the 10th Mountain Division.
OTOH, the new vote scanners only tells you if your scan succeeds. There is NO confirmation of WHO you voted for. Who confirms the programming accuracy?
Also, the primary in NYC was so bungled that the prospect of facing not-secret ballot and no confirmation, etc., is certain to depress turnout, handing some advantage to the other 57 counties.
Could this possibly have anything to do with Soros funded Secretary of State project. This may be intentional.
They want to suppress the military vote because they will vote overwhelmingly Republican.
Clinton did the same thing in 2000 to help Al Gore.
70% of the military vote Republican. THAT’S why they are not getting the ballots.
70% of new immigrant citizens vote Democratic. THAT’S why we cannot get the borders sealed.
The Dems do not care about the law or fairness of elections. They care about POWER. The folks in charge of the process are Dems or are beholden to the Dems for their jobs and careers.
The military needs to send home every soldier who has not gotten his ballot, so he can vote in corpus. Forget the mission over there. There is a greater mission here: The Right to Vote! It is time for a mini-rebellion from the military. After all, if they are too feckless to protect their own right to vote, how can they protect us?
Oh, shut up about the military obeying their civilian masters. They are required to disobey illegal orders. They cannot be ordered not to bring the troops home to vote. Either the ballots go to the troops, or the troops come home to vote.
Every day, this administration proves it is the most incompetent, crooked, and morally bankrupt gaggle of thieves and reprobates to ever assemble in Washington, DC and try to sell the people of this country the worst smelling, foul, stinking, and poisonous snake oil mixture ever conconcted. No one, absolutely no one with one living brain cell can actually believe in or vote for anyone they endorse or anyone who has a big “D” beside their name on a ballot.
The anger boiling to the surface seems to gather momentum as each day passes. Each day, Obama makes another idiotic comment, supported by the next biggest idiot in Washington, Joe Biden. Pelosi and Reid wear the same black piping on their white topcoats and don the traditional high hat snake oil peddlers have worn for over 200 years. Each day, these snakes slither along the ground with their poisonous fangs exposed, ready to inflict a death bite on the citizens of this country. Yet, they try to tell us they are “loyal Americans”. Due to the request of the owners of this blog, I will refrain from using unsavory language and try to constrain my comments to verbal descriptive terms without outright resorting to a call for other than peaceful means of taking our country away from the mentally incompetents who control it now.
Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! Vote! and take as many with you as you can to the polls in November.
To the Officers and staff in DC, why are you not looking after the welfare of those who serve under your leadership. As a NCO while in service, I was taught that if we that where charged with our troops welfare did so, the troops would take care of the mission. While I admit that as a troop we often complained of Ring Knockers, we rarely trusted Ivy League ROTC leaders. The dark places in this world often provide one with the ability of who to trust, Ivy League rarely measured up.
Has anyone else noticed this goes on every election cycle where the Democratic Party anticipates bad news?
The DOJ is tied up in important work right now, investigating those who oppose the regime. There is no time for niceties like making sure (mostly white) Soldiers can vote.
Nothing to see here Citizen, move along. Or else.
Actually, I believe the relative proportion of minorities is significantly higher in the military than in the general population. Not that it matters; in uniform, they are all the same color.
These men and women are out putting their lives on the line for our freedoms and what happens? They don’t even get to vote? This is outrageous and a national disgrace! Why aren’t all the idiot politicians raising the roof about this? Where is that goofy president? Oh, I forgot! He had to go play golf. What has happened to our country?
Every mother, father, brother, sister and extended family member of those in the armed forces, from NY especially, should get on the bus, car, train and what ever other mode of transportation they have and visit the freaking Mayor and the Governor of that state and demand in public that they sue the election officials and the DOJ for not enforcing the law.They should make this such a public display that every communications outlet has no choice but to notice the actions taken and report it to the world. This POTUSINO must be stopped and yesterday would have not been soon enough, along with Holder.
Is it legal for a citizen to obtain a “blank” NY Ballot and mail it to the troops?
Use this to get more voters to turn out considering the troops aren’t going to be able to cast their ballots?
Just askin’…
I live in California, LA county, and I haven’t received any election materials from out elections office either. I wonder if the registered democrats have received theirs…
If you infer that there are Black Panthers in the military Holder will look into it himself!
Another move by this lawless administration to try and stifle votes for Republicans.
If I were Commander-in-Chief, I would fly the affected soldiers home and embargo funds the the state involved to pay for the full cost of the round-trip flights.
UPDATE: Over ten days after learning that New York failed to mail military ballots, and after withering criticism from Congress and here at Pajamas Media, the DOJ finally sued. Over a week was lost. We will watch closely the terms of any settlement agreement. More about the lawsuit at:
http://electionlawcenter.com/2010/10/12/ny-military-voting-complaint.aspx
Everyone,comment, blog, get it rolling, the left wing mainstream media is trying to sweep this travesty under the rug. Let our voices BE HEARD!
I know what could do to get that ole’ Progressive/Communist bell a tollin’. Just send The New Black Panthers out to various locations with clubs a swingin’, to lay out some intimidation and racial insults. Like they do so well in front of voting booths. Now, I know most people think this would be against the law but they are guessing wrong. Why? Eric Holder is just like the NAACP now. He plays the race card, always and he certainly believes that hate crimes laws have no importance to this Administration. How do we know this? Why was no one prosecuted for arson at Sarah Palin’s Wasilla church last year?. And if NBPP were instead the KKK or just southern rednecks, wouldn’t they be in jail now? What else would you expect from Holder, who was personally involved in obtaining the pardons for the Puerto Rican terrorists and engineering the pardon of Marc Rich, who was on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted List; having been convicted, in absentia, for multiple felonies. Holder committed that particular engineering job while he was working for President Clinton and only after Marc Rich’s wife “contributed” a few million to Clinton’s campaign funds and his “presidential library fund”. So, charges were brought against the New Black Panther Party by the Bush Administration. The New Panthers refused to answer the charges, so they were charged by default. Eric Holder allows the charges to be dismissed. Right? Maybe we could get the NAACP to investigate? Come to think of it, maybe that won’t work. Why? Benjamin Todd Jealous, the president and CEO of the NAACP called Anthony “Van” Jones a “National Treasure.” “He is quite simply one of the few Americans in recent years to have generated powerful new ideas that are creating more jobs here.” While Van Jones may have left the White House under a cloud, the NAACP says that’s not his whole story. The group considers him a pioneering hero for the environment and civil rights — so much so that it awarded him one of its highest honors in Feb. 2010, an NAACP Image Award. The NAACP gives out awards to Communists now. The great Martin Luther King is rolling in his grave.
Make sure the armed forces are scattered all over the world, in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, in the fleets. The scum very afraid that if the troops were home they might have the audacity to actually protest this desecration, this violation of their rights by the MOVE Act and any decency. The American revolution was brought about by such things, is it necessary to bring a class action suit against the DOJ,the election centres and the congress to ensure this atrocity will never be perpetrated on the brave,patriotic men and women in all the services? An American dream, a regiment of marines,knocking on the white house door demanding “And just where are our ballots, mister president, can you say semper fi, mis-ter president?”
If this comment is disallowed it’ll be proof enough for this reporter that the majority of the American media is still protecting the fraudulent machinations of a non-representative government. Thank you. Semper FI