There is one problem with this law, it is that a few states hold their primaries a week or so before or after the 45 day limit day. Thus it is not possible for the states to send a final ballot to soldiers 45 days before the november election date, because the primary elections have not been held, selecting who will be on the November ballot. Fortunately for me, during my military years, Indiana had and still has its primary voting in May. This year Maryland has its primary on Sep 14, thus cutting the 45 day limit very close.
Adams addresses some of that problem in the latter part of the article, right after “Could Wisconsin have done something differently? Lots.”
I think Adams is saying the DOJ is dragging its feet in making states who are dragging their feet comply with the move act in several ways.
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The states haves to send the ballots whether a waiver is issued or not but if sent too late they may not be counted. WI says they’ll count them if received late but I don’t know a thing but what’s in this article. I have no idea about any actions that can be taken by troops, I’d bet none.
The waivers are issued by the Pentagon but it seems enforcement is up to DOJ and DOJ undermined the Pentagon on the WI waiver.
The states knew this was coming for months and months and some just sat back and basically said “no big deal,” we’ll get a waiver. If DOJ would take firmer preventative action they could force the laid back states to better comply.
When state law conflicts with federal law, state law is overridden.
If state law specifies a primary date which makes it impossible to comply with federal law, then the primary date must be moved early enough that compliance is feasible.