With Integrity of Voting System at all time low - Justice Dept. offers no assistance
The Justice Department yesterday jumped into an
intensely partisan legal battle over the election rules that will
govern the upcoming presidential election, arguing in federal court
that the Democratic Party has no right to challenge rules in Michigan
or elsewhere that govern the counting of "provisional ballots." A new
federal law requires that voters across the country who show up at the
polls but whose names do not appear on the rolls be given a provisional
ballot, which will count if it can be determined after Election Day
that the voter was eligible. Democrats have challenged rules in a
number of states, including Michigan, that prohibit such ballots from
being counted if they are cast in the wrong precinct. They contend that
provisional ballots are more likely to be cast by low-income or
minority voters, and that the Help America Vote Act, which Congress
passed in 2002, does not allow for such restrictions on otherwise
eligible voters. Federal judges in several swing states have issued
conflicting rulings, which led the Justice Department to file a brief
in the still-pending Michigan case, a spokesman said. "Congress made an
explicit decision not to disturb states' long-standing authority to
determine how ballots are to be counted, and the United States believes
that courts must respect that congressional decision," spokesman Mark
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