Fairfax County Registrar Rokey Suleman is disqualifying an overwhelming majority of the military federal write-in absentee ballots received in his county on the basis that no address had been given for those witnessing the voter signatures on the ballots. According to Springfield District Supervisor
Pat Herrity and four former members of the military who held a press conference on Thursday, over 98 percent of these military absentee ballots in Fairfax County are being rejected.
Fairfax Co. Registrar Rokey Suleman. He has decided to reject absentee ballots from American soldiers stationed overseas. In fact, some of the ballots he’s not counting are those from military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr. Suleman is using a technicality to throw out hundreds of our brave soldier’s votes. Except that Marc Ambinder reports that the Suleman is getting the technicalities wrong.
Voter disenfranchisement in any form is wrong, but the fact that some are actively seeking to take away the right to vote from the very people that are fighting to defend this fundamental American principal is deplorable.
Furthermore, Suleman is a partisan. He was the founder of the Trumbull, OH Young Democrats. Earlier this year, he ran, and lost, for the Ohio Democratic State Central Committee
“I am getting e-mails from people offering to buy my tombstone,” Fairfax County Registrar Rokey Suleman said Monday about the brewing controversy over his decision to comply with a Virginia law regarding a small class of absentee ballots for next week’s presidential election.
The ballots have fallen victim to the interplay between state and federal law and a rare set of factual circumstances. Federal law allows members of the U.S. military and other voters living overseas to vote in the general election using a federal write-in absentee ballot. The problem has been caused by the fact that when a Virginia voter decides to use the federal write-in absentee ballot both as a ballot to cast a vote and as an absentee ballot application, a separate Virginia law requires that the paperwork submitted by the voter include the address of the person acting as a witness for the voter.
But here’s the issue: neither the federal absentee write-in ballot itself nor its instructions mentions Virginia’s requirement that the witness’s address be included. In fact, the ballot form doesn’t even have a space to write down the witness address which Virginia requires.
You can tell Rokey Suleman to honor our American soldiers and count their votes.
Rokey Suleman
Fairfax County General Registrar
703-222-0776
Rokey.Suleman@fairfaxcounty.gov
Wild Thing’s comment……..
This is yet one more trick they pull toss military ballots – but round up the homeless and felons and make sure THEIR votes count.
Only democrats would disenfranchise our military. They are disgraceful.
It is NOT the Republicans that keep the military from voting, NOT the Republicans that protest our military!!!!
We CANNOT let this happen again!!! Our brave military personnel more than anyone else deserve to have their voting rights protected.
Don’t mess with our military!!!!!!!!!!! This has happened TOO MANY TIMES, for TOO MANY YEARS!!!!!!!!
….Thank you Mark for sending this to me.
Northern Virginia is full of islamos and inner DC transplants, big time. The blacks in the U.S. military are 80% PRO-OBAMA and on base last week, the TV’S had CNN – Communist News Nutwork on! Sadly, we are falling FROM WITHIN and this was predicted by the WARSAW PACT, CHICOMS and USSR communist elites in the Cold War from 1945 – 1991… In 2000, ‘FLORIDUH’ threw the U.S. Military Absentee Ballots in the trash… Fortunately, W defeated the Sorelosermen in FLA by 522 votes!!!
They are doing it again Darth. The UCMJ limits the enlistee’s civil rights and their freedom of speech while their civilian counter parts disallow their right to vote, it’s the same theme in every election. Paramilitary organizations are never censored, local police, fire departments, county and state police, the FBI, none are restricted from their voting rights. The state and party voting officials shit all over themselves to ensure even the illegal aliens get to vote. Yet they’ll toss out the Military vote. I’m disgusted at the way we dishonor those who sacrifice it all for us.
Sounds like Florida in 2000 all over again when they threw out military absentee ballots.
Why doesn’t this surprise me?!?!?! Gore did the same thing in 2000 in Florida because he knew he was going to lose!!!!!! Another classic example of cheating honest Americans out of their God given and Constitutional right to have their voices heard via their vote!!!!!!!!!!
Jack, I too am totally disgusted and embarrassed at how the military is dishonored at every step of the way!!! Our military has more honor and integrity in their little finger than ALL of our Congressional members do in their whole careers!!!!!!!
It took 9 minutes for Mr. Suleman to respond to my email regarding this article! He stated that he did not chose to do this – that it was decided in the Va legislature, then after questioning this decision his county board voted 3-0 to uphold the law. He also stated that it affected 63 ballots only and it is being blown out of proportion due to politics. Isn’t it funny how you can hear the outcry “Count all the votes!” yet when you have legal voters it doesn’t matter if their votes are counted or not especially involving our military and their’s is dismissed on a small technicality.
Darth, yes your so right. Linda at her blog
http://lindasog.com/
today has charts showing the voting of the military and the majority are for McCain/Palin, and lilke you said the ones for Obama are mostly the blacks. Did I say racist? naw! haha
Jack, this makes me go balistic, I can feel my blood boil.
“Yet they’ll toss out the Military vote. I’m disgusted at the way we dishonor those who sacrifice it all for us.”
BobF, yes it sure does. This crap has been going on that I can remember all the way back to when Bill Clinton ran for President.
John, it sure is, they cheat and do this everytime. I really have had it about this. I wish I had some kind of power to make things right about this.
The VA attorney General was not happy – his daughter was in Iraq in ’06. He got on the phone and straightened out that Fairfax registrar idiot.
There was a meeting today and the votes will be counted.
But we’re still in trouble – the NAACP is suing VA for being RACIST! in the polling places…
Lordy, the next 4 years are going to be teeth grindingly annoying!
Jada, nice to meet you. Thank you for sharing about writing to Suleman. I got the same reaction from him.
“Isn’t it funny how you can hear the outcry “Count all the votes!” yet when you have legal voters it doesn’t matter if their votes are counted or not especially involving our military and their’s is dismissed on a small technicality.”
You are so right that is exactly what they do.
Yankeemom, thank you so much for the update. This is all very upsetting and it just sees no end. Like you said so well…..”Lordy, the next 4 years are going to be teeth grindingly annoying!”
Sir,
Virginia’s Attorney General announced today that all military absentee ballots WILL be counted. Looks like all our efforts paid off.
S/F,
Jim
James R. Casey
Deputy Executive Director
Marine Corps Aviation Association
PO Box 296, 715 Broadway St.
Quantico, VA 22134-0296
(703) 630-1903; Fax (703) 630-2713
Web Site: http://www.flymcaa.org
DaveH , thank you so much for the update. I really appreciate it so much.
Jada…ONLY 63, eh? The ALAMO only had 189 patriots in it! “America will fall from within without having to fire one single shot?”