New York Misses Military Absentee Ballot Deadline

FOXNEWS.COM/NEWSCORE - More than one week after its extended deadline, the state of New York failed by Monday to send out absentee ballots to all its 320,000 military servicemen and women and overseas voters, a violation of federal law.

According to the 2009 MOVE Act, a state must send out its military and overseas ballots 45 days prior to elections.

New York was granted a waiver to the deadline by the Department of Justice and given an additional 15 days -- until October 1 -- to send out all its ballots. On October 5, New York State Board of Elections co-directors informed federal officials that the state had not fully met their extended deadline, according to an email posted online by a Defense Department agency.

Servicemen from New York City and four state counties are still awaiting the mailing of their ballots.
New York City alone has about 50,000 servicemen and women and overseas voters.

"The gravity of New York's failure cannot be overstated," said Eric Eversole, a former Justice Department voting section attorney who recently started a nonprofit organization, Military Voter Protection Project, to protect military voting rights.

"There is no doubt that the November elections could be altered by this failure."

Department of Justice spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said the organization was in "urgent discussions" about the issue.

The MOVE Act was passed in 2009. Its lead author and sponsor was Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), chairman of the Senate Rules Committee.

"Put these ballots on the next plane to Afghanistan," Schumer said in a statement. "These soldiers sacrifice their lives to protect our freedoms, they should never, ever be denied their right to vote. I wrote and passed this law so our brave men and women overseas would no longer be disenfranchised and there is absolutely no excuse for failing to get this done."

Source: FOXNEWS.COM