Election officials in two Florida counties will not be required to
count absentee ballots returned after the polls closed on Election Day,
regardless of what problems caused the ballots to be mailed late to
voters, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. The American Civil Liberties
Union had asked in a lawsuit for an emergency order requiring
Miami-Dade and Broward officials to count the late ballots. The
uncounted ballots would not change the outcome of the presidential race
in Florida, where President Bush defeated Sen. John Kerry by about
375,000 votes. Several thousand absentee ballots were mailed the
weekend before the election in the two counties. "Voters have failed to
show the defendants arbitrarily or deliberately delayed" sending the
absentee ballots, U.S. District Judge Alan Gold wrote. He noted the
three voters named in the suit could have requested ballots earlier
than "just days before the election." [more]
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