Obama camp wants every military vote counted

[unhappycamper]

Obama camp wants every military vote counted
By Rick Maze - Staff writ
Posted : Wednesday Oct 29, 2008 12:06:36 EDT

The Barack Obama campaign is urging state election officials to make an extra effort to count all military absentee votes, even though most of those votes might be expected to support the Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

In an Oct. 27 letter to the top election officials in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, Robert Bauer, general counsel for the Obama for America organization, asks states to make an extra effort to count absentee ballots cast by service members.

The letters come despite recognition by senior Obama campaign officials that many military voters —possibly a majority of military voters — are more likely to vote for Republican presidential candidate Arizona Sen. John McCain rather than Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois.

“A military voter who is timely registered with the state and has submitted his or her federal write-in absentee ballot by the state’s deadline should be in no doubt that their vote will be counted,” Bauer says in the letters.

One state already has had a legal battle over military ballots. Virginia election officials initially balked at accepting federal write-in ballots because the federal form omits one piece of information required under state election laws — the address of the people witnessing the voter signing the ballot.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/10/military_obama_militaryvoters_102908w/%2e