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Rokey Suleman Fairfax County General Registrar 703-222-0776 Rokey.Suleman@fairfaxcounty.gov

Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell on Monday said federal absentee ballots from military voters overseas must be counted, following a local registrar's decision to set some ballots aside in an attempt to follow state law. In a seven-page advisory opinion delivered to the state Board of Elections, Mr. McDonnell said Virginia law requires overseas military voters submitting a Federal Post Card Application and Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot (FWAB) to include the name and address of a witness on the application envelope. But he said federal law pre-empts the state provision requiring that certain absentee ballots include the witness's printed...

Military absentee votes will be counted in Fairfax County, Virginia thanks to an opinion just issued by Virginia's Attorney General Bob McDonnell. The just-issued opinion smacks down the partisan effort by Fairfax registrar Rokey Suleman who -- contrary to federal law -- was requiring military absentee ballots to show the address of the witness countersigning the ballot. O'Donnell's opinion finds that federal law preempts the Virginia law which requires the ballots to show witnesses' addresses. The press release from O'Donnell's office says: McDonnell Opinion: Count all Absentee Military Ballots Opinion Finds Federal Law Preempts State Law; Federal Ballots without Witness...

A Republican Fairfax County supervisor is warning that more than 200 absentee ballots from members of the military could go uncounted because of a technicality. County Registrar Rokey Suleman II has set aside 255 federal write-in absentee ballots because they were submitted without a witness address, supervisor Patrick Herrity said Thursday at a press conference. A witness address is not required on a normal absentee ballot. But it is required on the federal write-in absentee ballots typically used by military members, Suleman said. "We're following the letter of Virginia law," Suleman said. Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., in a statement circulated...

Military Ballots Being Rejected in Virginia by Connie Hair 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. “The federal write-in absentee ballot is a federally mandated ballot that allows military service members and their...

From the Washington Post: RICHMOND, Oct. 21 -- Efforts by elections officials in Fairfax County and several Virginia jurisdictions to distribute absentee ballots to military members and others living overseas ground to a halt Tuesday after a group concerned about the state's voting system crashed e-mail servers with a massive letter-writing campaign.....With the deadline to apply for absentee ballots in Virginia on Tuesday, Rokey Suleman said he and other registrars were unable to mail out or receive applications electronically. About midmorning, the Fairfax elections office had to shut down its e-mail servers after they took in more than 700 form...

The military voting project at the National Defense Committee responds to reports out of Fairfax, Virginia, and after polite telephone conversations and an exchange of letters, the problem looks like it will be solved and votes will be counted.

The Young Democrats Meet the Third Thursday of the month: Next Meeting Thursday, August 21, 2008 6:00 PM Democratic Headquarters 164 High St. NE Warren, Ohio 44481 Rokey Suleman, Past President and Founding Member 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. This is the same guy: Yes. The same guy. Should someone start writing to all of the outlets that might put this into the hands of media...

Fairfax County elections staff visited jail to register inmates By William C. Flook Examiner Staff Writer 10/8/08 Inmates at the Fairfax County jail were encouraged to register and vote last week by elections officials making what the county’s sheriff called the first visit of its kind in his 30 years with the county. That voter turnout effort is now being defended by county officials, but blasted by Republicans who called it an attempt to influence what could be a close presidential election in the commonwealth. Both Fairfax County General Registrar Rokey Suleman and Sheriff Stan Barry deny any wrongdoing in...

A tussle over military votes in Virginia reveals a scrap for every single vote. Virginia campaign officials for GOP presidential candidate John McCain are saying that some Fairfax County absentee ballots — and possibly some in Hampton Roads — from overseas service members are getting rejected due to a technicality. But the Fairfax registrar said that he is following state law in rejecting a small number of absentee ballots that come in at the same time as the voter's application. McCain's Virginia campaign officials called a press conference Thursday afternoon in Fairfax to say that a specific type of absentee...

The patchwork problem of federal and state election regulations strikes again. Military ballots are being tossed in Fairfax Co, VA because of a “technicality.” Not a lot of them compared to the size of the electorate, but more than a few. The registrar of voters in a Democrat. He thinks it “stinks,” but the law is the law. Fairfax general registrar Rokey Suleman said Thursday that he has had to reject some of the ballots because of a Virginia law passed in 2002. That law -- then called Senate Bill 113, sponsored by then state Sen. Bill Bolling – requires...