Judge Orders Military Ballots Counted

[UPDATE: There is yet no indication how the stay ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court might affect the counting of these newly valid military ballots. After an opinion is issued following Monday's hearing, a better assessment of their disposition may be known.]

U.S. District Judge Lacey Collier has granted a Bush campaign request and ruled that the overseas military absentee ballots, disqualified at the insistence of Gore lawyers, must be counted, regardless of the absence of postmarks or the lack of an application requesting a state absentee ballot.

In a decision issued yesterday, the court declared that hundreds of the previously rejected ballots be deemed "valid" and ordered several Florida counties to count and include them in their final tallies.

The counties initially named in the suit are Hillsborough, Okaloosa, Orange, Pasco, Polk, Collier, and Walton.

Collier, a federal judge for the Northern District of Florida, said: "For the members of our military, the absentee ballot is a cherished mechanism to voice their political opinion." He added, "How and where they conduct their lives is dictated by the government. The vote is their last vestige of expression and should be provided, no matter what their location."

It is widely presumed that the majority of these ballots contain votes for Bush, based upon the results of military ballots already counted.

Given the controversial decision by the Florida Supreme Court, also issued yesterday, ordering hand counts in nearly all Florida counties – without any objective standard – news of this important decision has received little notice.

The 28-page opinion signed by Judge Collier noted that with the unique circumstances surrounding the current election, it was important to take this matter on an expedited basis.

The implications of this decision could prove critical to the Bush campaign should neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals grant injunctive relief to stop the manual counts.

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Dan Frisa represented New York in the United States Congress and served four terms in the New York State Assembly.

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