New deadline for military/overseas absentee ballots in 20th CD
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- March
- 27
The state Board of Elections has extended the deadline for military and overseas voters in the 20th congressional race to get their absentee ballots in, the agency announced this morning. Instead of the usual seven days after the election for the votes to be received, there will be 13 days—until April 13. Ballots must be postmarked by March 30.
The special election to fill a U.S. House of Representatives seat left open by now-Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand takes place from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday. Assembly Minority Leader Jim Tedisco, R-Schenectady, is running against entrepreneur Scott Murphy of Glens Falls, Warren County. Tedisco is on the Republican and Conservative party lines, and Murphy is on the Democratic, Independence and Working Families party lines. The sprawling district includes part or all of 10 counties, including Delaware, Dutchess and Otsego.
Three days ago, the U.S. Justice Department filed a complaint against the state Board of Elections because there wasn’t enough time for overseas and military voters to participate in the election, the federal agency said. The ballot for the 20th congressional district was certified March 11. A minimum of 30 days is necessary for the round-trip transit of absentee ballots from those voters, according to federal election law.
The state will also accept federal write-in absentee ballots cast by military personnel and citizens living overseas who are qualified to vote in New York. To obtain the ballot, visit www.fvap.gov.
Voters can contact the state Board of Elections at 518-474-1953 or on the Web at www.elections.state.ny.us.
The Board of Elections voted to knock Libertarian Party candidate Eric Sundwall of Niverville, Columbia County, out of the race earlier this week after disqualifying several thousand of the signatures his campaign received to petition onto the ballot.
This entry was posted
on Friday, March 27th, 2009 at 9:39 am by Cara Matthews.
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Jay Gallagher has covered Albany for Gannett News Service since 1984 and has been Albany Bureau chief since 1989. He`s a native of the Boston area and likes to point out that in this millennium, the score is Red Sox 1 championship, the Yankees 0. 
Cara Matthews has been a statehouse correspondent in the Albany Bureau since August 2005. Prior to that, she covered Putnam County government and politics at The Journal News for nearly five years. Before that, she worked at newspapers in Connecticut and covered the state Legislature for one of them. 
