William J. Howell: It's time to protect voting rights of American troops abroad

As we near the November 3 election in Virginia, the Commonwealth is sending a disheartening message to America's fighting men and women in Afghanistan and Iraq who are sacrificing their lives to establish free and fair elections abroad. Their absentee ballots may not be counted.

On October 15, 2009, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia held in United States of America v. Jean Cunningham that the Virginia State Board of Elections had disenfranchised Virginians serving in the Armed Services abroad in the 2008 Presidential Election.

The Court found that Virginia election officials mailed 125 absentee military ballots within only 14 days of the 2008election, while federal agencies recommend a 45-day round-trip transit time.

The Court also found that more than 2,000 timely requested military absentee ballots were mailed less than 30 days before the 2008 election, and at least 96 timely requested completed ballots were received by local officials after the polls closed, and therefore were not counted.

What is even more disturbing is that instead of making sure all Virginians serving their country overseas receive their ballots in time for the upcoming election,Governor Kaine's appointee has been spending her time defending the status quo.

Virginia State Board of Elections Chairwoman Jean Cunningham never disputedthat Virginia election officials mailed military absentee ballots too late to be counted. Instead, she spent nearly a year in a costly legal battle at the taxpayer's expense.

Her primary arguments were (1) that there is no federal statute requiring states to mail military absentee ballots to voters a minimum number of days before an election, and that (2) military voters had a Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot as a remedy if they did not receive the state absentee ballot in time.

The Court refuted both of these claims.

It is an embarrassment to the Commonwealth of Virginia that the Chairwoman of the State Board of Elections has been expending time, money and effort trying to keep our servicemen and women from effectively having their votes counted instead of making every effort to accommodate them.

With all due respect, Ms. Cunningham, we should not require specific federal "binding statutes" for us to honor the Constitutional rights of our citizens. That's especially true for those who are fighting and dying to preserve our freedoms - including protecting their right to vote.

For this year's election, I created a special web site to assist Virginians in the military in applying for absentee ballots by e-mail or fax and to request that their ballots be sent to them the same way. I also have aggressively promoted this process with e-mail, on Facebook and with Twitter. By cutting out two overseas trips via the U.S. Postal Service, the chances of their ballots being counted increase substantially.

But that effort is not enough.

Although it is too late to enact effective reform to impact this year's election onNovember 3, all of Virginia's leaders must begin to take this urgent issue seriously. In the 2010 Session of the Virginia General Assembly, we should create our own deadlines ensuring timely delivery, and, until Congress enacts an express mail delivery program for overseas military ballots, the Commonwealth should adopt our own reform at the state level to ensure quick delivery of military ballots. We must continue to look for ways to make the process as easy and efficient as possible.

Hans von Spakovsky, former counsel for the civil rights division at the U.S. Department of Justice and former Federal Election Commissioner, recently stated, "It is outrageous that Virginia's chief election official is defying complying with federal law instead of doing everything she can to make sure our military voters are not disenfranchised." I have to agree.

So, as we are fighting for free and fair elections abroad, we must do whatever is necessary to end the disenfranchisement of America's men and women in uniform once and for all. It is unacceptable that we may again see military voters disenfranchised before effective reform can occur.

William J. Howell is the Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates and the National Chairman of the American Legislative Exchange Council.