By Staff
Special to The Advance
U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL) announced his support for legislation last week that will require Florida and all other states to count overseas military votes in their certified totals for president.
Bachus says the legislation is needed to undo a calculated effort of the Gore campaign to disqualify military ballots.
Bachus is working with U.S. Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) on the proposal, which will be retroactive to this month's election. The legislation will require states to count all ballots from military service members overseas if there is no evidence of fraud. Missing postmarks and nitpicky technicalities would not be grounds to disqualify a military ballot.
The bill will be introduced when Congress returns on Dec. 5.
Congress will have to act quickly, however, because Florida has until Dec. 12 to designate its electors and the Electoral College will cast its votes for president on Dec. 18.
Of the 3,733 military and overseas ballots received in Florida, more than 1,500 have been rejected. (Accompanying this news release is a graphic detailing the wholesale and, to date, successful effort to disenfranchise military votes in Florida.)
The Democrat National Committee (DNC) recruited lawyer Mark Herronto lead a coordinated statewide effort to throw out as many Florida military ballots as possible. Herron wrote a five-page memorandum on how to use any and all technicalities to throw out ballots from armed forces personnel serving overseas.
military," said Bachus. "We cannot permit them to be successful."