In June 2012, the federal government sued Georgia for failing to comply with the federal law that protects overseas absentee voters. The case is United States v State of Georgia, northern district, 1:12cv-2230. The federal law requires election officials to mail overseas absentee ballots at least 45 days before election day. Without this law, which only pertains to federal elections, overseas voters get their ballots so late, the voted ballots arrive back in the United States too late to be counted.
States that use run-off primaries have a difficult time complying with the federal law. Georgia holds its primary in July and its run-off primary only three weeks later, in August. Georgia is also one of only two states that holds a run-off general election if no one gets 50% in November; that run-off is four weeks later, in early December. Naturally, with so many elections being held on such a compressed schedule, Georgia can’t comply with the federal law. But Georgia officials are so eager to retain their existing schedule, they are offering to count overseas ballots if they arrive back in the United States as much as 35 days after the election.
Under the state’s plan, in 2014, the primary will be July 15; the run-off primary will be August 5; the general election will be November 4; and the run-off general election will be December 2. The state says it will count overseas ballots for the run-off primary as long as they arrive back in the United States by September 9. And the state says it will count overseas ballots for the run-off general election if they arrive by December 30. The obvious problem with this plan is that if the run-off primary is quite close, no one may know who won until after the overseas ballots have been returned and counted, and that would be over a month after the run-off primary. It would also mean that in the event of a close general election run-off, the identity of the winner might not be known until January. The next step in the lawsuit will be a decision by Judge Steve C. Jones, an Obama appointee, whether to approve the state’s plan. If he rejects it, the state will either need to change its primary dates, or end primary run-offs. See this story.
Louisiana held a congressional general election a month after the November 2012 Open Primary did not have a majority winner in one district.
South Carolina hods its primary runoff two weeks after the primary.
One of the problems is the DOJ’s claim that federal law (e.g., MOVE) now requires that perfect ballots with candidates’ names be sent overseas 45 days before elections. It used to be that states could send write-in ballots with separate lists of candidates, or alternatively list the candidates on-line. DOJ’s apparent rejection of write-ins (which, incidentally, are still used in some states for overseas voters, e.g., PA, OH and have been approved by DOJ)forces the deadlines forward. DOJ’s position, however, finds no support in the language of the relevant statutes. Instead, it is unearthed from a committee report. I cannot believe that this is a correct interpretation of the statute.