KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany — As the Nov. 2 midterm election nears, some states and U.S. territories are struggling to get absentee ballots to military and overseas voters, jeopardizing the chances of having their ballots counted.
The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act passed by Congress last year mandates that election officials deliver absentee ballots to overseas and military voters no later than 45 days before Election Day.
But some local election offices have failed to get absentee ballots out in time, prompting the U.S. Justice Department to step in on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of potential military and overseas voters.
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On Wednesday, for example, the department reached an agreement with election officials in New Mexico to extend the deadline for receipt of absentee ballots. Those received by Nov. 6 will now be counted. Under the agreement, the state also will have to take steps to ensure compliance with MOVE Act regulations for future federal elections.
The Justice Department has reached similar agreements with Alaska, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Nevada, North Dakota and the U.S. Virgin Islands over failure to meet that 45-day deadline, according to an Oct. 12 Justice Department release.
“The Justice Department is committed to vigorous enforcement of the MOVE Act so that members of the uniformed services, their families and other citizens living overseas are able to exercise their right to vote and know their votes will be counted,” said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the department’s Civil Rights Division.
At least 992,000 absentee ballots for overseas and military voters were requsted for the last mid-term election in 2006, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. About one-third of those ballots were successfully cast and counted.
The Justice Department also has filed lawsuits against New York, Wisconsin, and Guam for failure to get ballots to absentee voters at least 45 days before the election. The legal actions are meant to force election offices in those states to count ballots that arrive after the normal absentee ballot deadlines.
Under the MOVE Act, states with primary schedules within that 45-day window can apply for special exemptions.
New York submitted such an application, according to the Justice Department, but failed to mail ballots to its military and overseas citizens by the new Oct. 1 deadline. Of the 62 counties in New York state, nine failed to mail out their ballots in time, including those counties comprising New York City....
