Thursday, October 30, 2008
Editorial: Signed, witnessed, mailed -- and counted
Overseas voters followed the instructions they were given. Their votes should count.
From the RoundTable blog
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Phew. At least one potential election debacle has been avoided. Questionable absentee ballots by Virginians living or serving overseas will be counted.
That wasn't a sure thing just a few days ago when a technicality arose. Rational thinking by top Republicans and Democrats prevented the ballot problem from blossoming into a hyper-partisan embarrassment -- not that Virginia party leaders aren't capable of bloodying each other. So it is a relief that they demonstrated -- at least for now -- that they can play fair on an electoral-votes battleground.
The problem with the ballots was flagged last week in Fairfax County when the Democratic registrar noticed that some absentee ballots sent by overseas servicemen who used the federal form lacked the address of a witness, as required by Virginia law. Technically, this could disqualify the ballots, so he correctly asked the State Board of Elections for clarification.
If this were just a matter of rules are rules, fair is fair, instructions are instructions, then maybe the ballots should have been trashed.
But the instructions were as clear as a dimpled chad.
Overseas voters are permitted to file either a state or a federal ballot. If they opt for the slower state absentee process, Virginia law does not require witnesses to disclose their addresses. However, state law imposes a different standard on the federal ballot, requiring the address. The federal form notes that some states might require this, but it doesn't list the states or contain a blank line for the witness's address.
Lawmakers can and should address this confusion during their next session. In the meantime, a decision had to be made about the hundred or so disputed ballots.
To set them aside, as the Fairfax registrar did, invited charges by the McCain campaign that soldiers would be disenfranchised. It was nearly a foregone conclusion that Republican Attorney General Bob McDonnell, when asked for an opinion, would find a way to count the anticipated Republican-leaning ballots.
To his credit, the lawyer McDonnell, rather than the politician McDonnell, stepped forward to issue a well-researched, reasoned opinion, pointing out the glaring disparities in the law and concluding federal law trumps state law.
To the Democrats' credit, the Obama campaign also urged that all ballots be counted.
May this willingness to tally all legitimate votes be extended by both parties through Election Day.
