U.S. Asks Judge to Drop Mich. Ballot Case

[Eye and Monkey]

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Ballot-Lawsuit.html?oref=login

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 19, 2004
Filed at 12:04 p.m. ET

LANSING, Mich. (AP) -- The Justice Department asked a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Michigan Democrats that seeks to require the state to count provisional ballots cast by voters who go to the wrong polling precinct.

The Justice Department argued in a friend-of-the-court brief Monday that the 2002 Help America Vote Act does not give individuals the right to sue if they believe their state has violated the law. Rather, they should go through a state administrative complaint process or rely on a U.S. attorney to file suit, the government said.

Michigan Democrats, the NAACP and voter-rights groups want Republican Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land to rescind her instructions telling local election officials not to count provisional ballots cast by voters who are shown to have voted at the wrong precinct. They say it should be enough that voters vote in the jurisdiction -- city, township or village -- where they live.

``American elections have long been precinct-based,'' Justice Department attorneys wrote in court papers. ``A well-understood premise of such a system is that a voter must appear at the correct polling place -- the one to which the voter was assigned, and on whose rolls the voter appears -- or else the voter will not be able to vote.''
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[drscm]

1. Once again, the *Bush Justice Dept. fighting for the rights of the...

ooops! Sorry. I forgot. They are never interested in the rights of the people when the boy kings "livelihood" or power is at stake.

[Moderator]

2. DUplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x916266


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