Sen. Charles Schumer blasted Board of Elections officials Monday for blowing a deadline for sending ballots to troops overseas – putting their chance to vote at risk.
“Our troops sacrifice their lives to protect our freedoms. They should never, ever be denied the right to vote,” Schumer said.
There are approximately 50,000 New York City residents serving overseas – and 320,000 statewide.
Elections officials were originally supposed to ship the ballots to troops by Sept. 17. Because New York primaries were held Sept. 14, the federal government granted local officials an extension until Oct. 1.
But the state Board of Elections last week informed the Department of Defense that officials in New York City, Westchester, Putnam, Erie and Niagara Counties had failed to send the ballots by the Oct. 1 deadline.
The federal MOVE Act, a bill Schumer sponsored that passed in 2009, requires states to mail ballots to troops 45 days before the general election, scheduled this year for Nov. 2.
Absentee votes are counted until 13 days after election day.
Schumer said that sending ballots via regular mail can take up to 13 days, so he urged election officials to send them using overnight delivery to ensure that military votes are counted.
“Put these ballots on the next plane to Afghanistan,” Schumer said. “There is absolutely no excuse for failing to get this done.”
The state board of elections did not immediately return a call. A spokeswoman for the city Board of Elections had no immediate comment.
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(Source: NY Daily News)
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9 Responses
“SCREW UP” ??? are there any kosher websites left?? ruach memalela??
Postpone the election. Our brave soldiers deserve the right to vote.
Yeshivish Hocker; you only make it worse by bringing it up
“Screw-up” ? Why does “YESHIVA World News” use Nivul Peh?
Wow, Schumer, a democrat, cares about the military voting?He didn’t take that position in the 2000 Presidential election. What’s he have up his sleeve this time?
This speaks well of Schumer, since his party probably does poorer among military voters than is usual.
To Yeshivish Hocker & QuestionForYou:
Stop whining.
The term “screw up” was always meant a situation that was totally messed up due to some stupid action. The other connotation that seems to be opbjectional is a recent thing.
Senator Schumer’s concern is really non-partisan. I am sure that if NY had a Republican senator, he too would speak out about this mess.
To PringleBasPretzel:
The use of Nivul Peh is a violation of the Torah.
The Yeshiva World practices Judaism, which means keeping the laws of the Torah.
This web site is called Yeshiva World News. The reason that Torah-observant Jews read this web site is because it is believed that the news which is published here is in a Kosher format, without the language, pictures, and ads used by the secular world.
In case you didn’t read the YWN article on the Hate-Filled Protest By Westboro Baptist Church Outside Brooklyn Yeshivas,
the article’s author wrote, “the greatest Chillul Hashem in this writer’s view was the foul language directed at the group by members of none other than the Frum community.”
If it is perceived that Nivul Peh is used, a person has the right to say something. That is not whining.
So if you don’t like it, stop whining and read another web site for news.