Wednesday - August 25, 2010

Guess The Party, Round 28,112

Ten states, Washington, D.C., and the Virgin Islands are all seeking waivers exempting them from complying with the new law—the Move Act—that requires all states to mail absentee ballots to overseas military voters 45 days before Election Day.

The federal government felt the need for a national Act to nudge the states along so that their men and women in uniform serving overseas would have a chance to vote, and to have those votes counted.

“It’s been very clear that some of these states were not going to be in compliance with the Move Act a long time ago,” said Eric Eversole, executive director of the Military Voter Protection Project. “And the Department of Justice, each step of the way, has simply not taken the actions to ensure that the Move Act would be implemented in each of the 50 states.”

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who co-authored the Move Act, wrote Attorney General Eric Holder last month to complain that a top Justice Department official had called the law “fairly general” with some provisions “an open question.”

“If a state is not in compliance with the statute,” Cornyn wrote Holder, “there is little room for ‘dialogue’ or negotiation, and (the department’s) Voting (Rights) Section should take immediate steps to enforce the law.”

Fox has been following this story for some time now, but the best they can tell us about those states and areas is

The states are: Hawaii; New York; Delaware; Virgin Islands; Alaska; Washington; Maryland; Washington, D.C., Massachusetts; Wisconsin; Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

Because, you know, Washington DC is a state, and so is the territory of the Virgin Islands. But leaving such nuanced journalism aside, what Fox has not told us is this:
[UPDATE: I fixed the Massachusetts data. html tables are a pain]

5 3 out of 34. Or 3 out or 33, because this Alaska coalition thing is hard for an outsider to understand. Even so ... sure seems like a whole lot of blue in there. And that’s not newsworthy.

(data source: Wikipedia)

Posted by Drew458     on 08/25/2010 at 07:16 PM   
Filed Under: • Military • Politics •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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