http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsylvania/counties/chester_county/10034071.h
Pa. soldiers file ballot action
The two seek a federal court order extending the deadline for overseas tallies to be received, counted.
By Mario F. Cattabiani and Stephan Salisbury
Inquirer Staff Writers
HARRISBURG - Two soldiers from Pennsylvania serving abroad filed a motion in federal court yesterday to force the state to accept overseas absentee ballots received after Tuesday’s election.
Without an extension, U.S. Army Specs. Matthew J. Schramm of Schwenksville, Montgomery County, and Steven J. Reitz of Venango County, probably won’t have their votes counted, according to the court petition filed by lawyers with the Republican State Committee.
“With the war in Iraq a major issue in this election, it is especially imperative that the members of the military actually waging that war have their votes counted,” according to the motion, which asks the court to extend the absentee ballot deadline until Nov. 17.
Schramm and Reitz, who are serving in Kuwait and Iraq, respectively, become the first faces put on the controversial ballot issue that until now has dealt in the abstract realm of potentially disenfranchised voters.
State election law requires that each county send out its overseas absentee ballots by Sept. 20. They must be returned by Oct. 29 for votes to be counted for all offices on the ballot, or by Election Day for only the Presidential vote. The delays in getting ballots out have been blamed on uncertainty over whether Ralph Nader’s name would be on the ballot.
Yesterday’s court motion also gave Republicans fresh cause to ratchet even higher the political rhetoric against Democratic Gov. Rendell.
U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon (R., Pa.) yesterday threatened to “use my power” to withhold National Guard funds from coming into the state “to support this governor” if any overseas military votes go uncounted. And, at a separate news conference, U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) accused Rendell of using “heavy-handed partisanship” in opposing the extension.
Rendell was not available for comment yesterday, but last week he said he finds them “personally repugnant.”
He has said he would not support a deadline extension unless he saw evidence to suggest that voters indeed being disenfranchised. John Estey, Rendell’s chief of staff, said yesterday that no such evidence has surfaced yet.
The controversy was sparked by the governor’s opposition to a federal court motion the U.S. Justice Department filed three weeks ago in Harrisburg to force an extension of the deadlines to receive the completed ballots.
Some overseas voters received absentee ballots from county election officials with Nader listed as a presidential candidate, while others received ballots without the independent’s name.
The state Supreme Court removed Nader from the ballot Oct. 19, citing an insufficient amount of legitimate nominating signatures.
As a result, Justice Department lawyers argued that thousands of voters could be picking from an incorrect slate and, therefore, would be treated differently from other voters.
On Oct. 20, U.S. District Judge Yvette Kane sided with the Rendell administration, which argued that extending the deadline and sending to overseas voters new, corrected absentee ballots - as the federal government also requested - could do more harm than good and only serve to confuse the situation further.
Kane also noted that Justice Department lawyers failed to make the case that a single voter would be harmed if the court did not intervene.
According to the court motion yesterday, Schramm and Reitz still have not received their absentee ballots. Without an extension, they fear that they won’t get them in time to return them to their home counties by Election Day.
Republican officials have also wondered publicly why Rendell supported a court motion last spring to allow a similar extension but is opposing this one.
There’s a big difference between then and now, Rendell has said. For the primary elections, 10 counties had failed to send absentee ballots overseas on time. That, the governor said, amounted to “overwhelming evidence that counties had not lived up to their obligation.”
Of the state’s 67 counties, only one - Venango - failed to mail overseas absentee ballots on time for the general election. That rural county was more than two weeks late in sending out its 70 ballots but compensated for the delay by using expedited mail, said Kate Philips, Rendell’s press secretary.
Gov. Rendell democrat, must know 70% of the military votes Republican. Manipulating things again, huh gov.
