So - while fraud is investigated we won't know how much closer Kerry came in Florida...

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/bro...la-news-broward
Federal judge rules against counting late absentee ballots

By Ann W. O'Neill
Staff Writer

November 10, 2004

It's the state's job to run elections, and a citizen's right to vote does not include the right to choose how and when a ballot is cast, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

"There is no fundamental right to vote by absentee ballot," U.S. District Judge Alan Gold wrote in a 48-page opinion. The ruling explains why he was refusing to order elections officials in Broward and Miami-Dade counties to count absentee ballots received after 7 p.m. on Election Day.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union and Florida Legal Services sought an injunction to include the late ballots in the final tally. The suit claimed that because thousands of absentee ballots were mishandled, many Broward and Miami-Dade residents were denied the right to vote.

"We're disappointed he denied our efforts to ensure that everyone who cast an absentee ballot will have their vote counted," said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. He vowed to pursue the lawsuit, even without an injunction.

"Clearly there was a breakdown in the absentee ballot system in Miami-Dade, Broward and probably Palm Beach and other counties," Simon said. "I don't believe that the voters should suffer for the mistakes made by the county Supervisor [of Elections] Office."

The suit alleged that the two elections supervisors, Brenda Snipes in Broward County and Constance Kaplan in Miami-Dade County, did not get ballots to voters in time to complete them and mail them back before the deadline.

The suit asked Gold to order elections officials to count absentee ballots postmarked on Nov. 2 but received after 7 p.m. that day.

But the judge said no, finding a deadline "does not disenfranchise a class of voters." He added, "The state's interests in ensuring a fair and honest election and to count votes within a reasonable time justifies the light imposition on the Plaintiff's right to vote."

Gold concluded that elections officials had done nothing to deliberately delay mailing the absentee ballots. He placed responsibility on individual voters "to act in a timely fashion if they wish to vote."

"It's the result we expected," said Burnadette Norris-Weeks, attorney for Snipes.

Fay Friedman, the Sunrise woman who served as the lawsuit's lead plaintiff, said she had no comment.

According to testimony, Miami-Dade officials had problems with the contractor they paid to get the ballots out. Broward officials remailed about 13,300 absentee ballots in the final days leading to the election. There was no official count of how many of the ballots were returned too late to be counted.

Ann W. O'Neill can be reached at awoneill@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4531.


Copyright © 2004, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

I hope this is taken all the way to the Supreme Court. If they rule in favor of this ruling, it means that absentee ballots are history. No more.

No - they'll be allowed when Bush needs them - as in 200o when the military absentee ballots gave Bush the election because Gore allowed them to be counted regardless of whether a defect was present or not...

Without the details of when the ballots were mailed out to begin with and what lag time was allowed for return, it's tough to judge this particular case...


But this is the sort of thing that gets the general populace questioning the entire process...this, even if the suit ends in ultimate failure, is a good thing for the cause of truth...

Keep protesting Reps...keep digging the credibility hole you're in deeper...


And the rest of us need to keep the pressure on to find the REAL truth...no matter the outcome...find that which seperates us from all others...transparency...

his disent was not that bad probably so on appeal it would be heard

Well, excuse me. The government presents absentee voting as an optional form of voting and allows people to make use of it. By fooling people into voting this way, they are committing fraud against the people whose vote they are refusing to count. Are these arrogant bastards aware that that people from the whole world are watching, many of whom come from countries with more integrity when it comes to fair elections with paper trails and counting the votes.
Latest election in India:
http://www.infosecwriters.com/hhworld/hh9/voting.txt

Dichotomy:

What you said is what I was trying to say. I guess I missed the mark.

I want a new election this is not the citizens resposibility.

No, you didn’t miss the mark. I just wanted to elaborate the injustice of the ruling by the federal judge in somewhat more colorful language.

I know - I bet a lot of republicans who were encouraged to vote by absentee ballot would be shicked to hear that they don't get coutned.

You can bet if Bush was on the losing end he would be demanding and his borther would be overseeing the recounting of the absentee ballots...

Then lets get rid of all the provisionals all together. I don't care if you call it fraud I call it faulty machines and software. The right to vote is mine. Its not about did the president know its about do the machines and software work. Are we like Hati and Africa now or the taliban this is a big crock. You call it fraud I call it faulty software and machines a illegetimate election lets have it again.


You say tomato I say tamato you say potato I say patoto.

Since 2000 we have been a banana republic...

This is against the law according to their bill....