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Election Law Center posted by Christian Adams.

Do blank paper ballots or fax machines exempt states from MOVE Act?

The MOVE Act waivers are due out on Monday next week. Election Law Center has extensively covered the MOVE Act applications.

The Department of Defense must approve or reject the waivers with the advice of the Department of Justice. Two issues lurk through the waiver debates: 1) can states comply by just mailing a blank ballot 45 days in advance to military voters and consider that a ballot? What good is it for a solider to get a blank sheet of paper without the names. Are they supposed to find out who the candidates are once they are certified? But that is exactly what the states of New Hampshire, and perhaps Maryland, are arguing. The Department of Justice in McCain v. Cunningham has already taken the position that sending a blank ballot (aka FWAB ) would not constitute a real ballot. At least the Bush DOJ took that position. 2) Will the DOD and DOJ give too much weight to efforts at mitigation through computers and fax machines? Some inside the government (and this will be covered by writers in the future) have explicitly adopted an 80 percent policy. That is, they are willing to see 20 percent of military voters lose their right to vote as long as those 80 percent are aided by computers to get ballots. This helps the tail, but not the teeth.

The people who may be disenfranchised next Monday by the DOD and DOJ are the front line soldiers like the Navy Seals, 10th Mountain, Marines and others who hear the sounds of bullets whistling by their ears but don't see a computer screen for weeks. They eat MREs, they don't surf the web. The sleep under the stars, they don't have fax machines. But some in Washington may be about to adopt a policy that disenfranchises these heroes while they will approve waivers because someone at Aviano can sip a Taurasi and prints a ballot from email. Leave it to Washington to come up with an 80 percent solution for our bravest servicemembers.

If Washington thinks an FWAB is enough to ignore the MOVE Act then they will have made a joke of the law.