Court won’t extend absentee deadline

Anne Arundel County (Map, News) - Despite her best efforts, Baltimore County resident Melisande Fritszche’s vote didn’t count this election — and Maryland’s highest court says it’s going to stay that way.

The Maryland Court of Appeals on Monday agreed with the Anne Arundel County Circuit Court and rejected a motion by civil rights groups to extend the deadline for absentee ballots by 24 hours because many voters did not receive their ballots until the last minute.

Lawyers for the ACLU and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, who represented Fritszche, say the ruling means at least hundreds of Maryland voters were disenfranchised this year.

“There were hundreds if not thousands of people through no fault of their own who were disenfranchised,” said David Rocah, a staff attorney Maryland ACLU. “We’re disappointed the court didn’t see it that way. These are voters who were disenfranchised who did everything right. Our goal wasn’t to overturn an election; the goal is to ensure that every vote that should could does count. A government that took democracy seriously would ensure that.”

Ben Blustein of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights said Fritszche’s vote should have counted because it was the government that failed to provide her a ballot in ample time.

“We know that our client was disenfranchised. She followed the rules. The government failed to give her a ballot on time and she was not able to vote,” he said.

Fritszche is registered to vote in Baltimore County and is now a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology. In mid-August 2006, Fritszche requested an absentee ballot, but she did not receive it until the night before the Nov. 7 election. As a result, she could not mail her absentee ballot until Nov. 7, the lawsuit states.

The suit was filed on Election Day after state election officials refused to waive the requirement that ballots be postmarked by midnight Nov. 6.

The state argued that extending the deadline would be unfair to the voters whose ballots got in on time.

“It is ironic that, while asserting an equal protection violation, Ms. Fritszche asks for a remedy that would effectively — and impermissibly — create a privileged class of voters, namely, those who are permitted to vote, despite the fact that their ballots were not timely received,” lawyers from the attorney general’s office wrote in a response to the suit.

Voters requested more than 188,000 absentee ballots statewide after a September primary riddled with errors. The volume of requests caused delays in shipping, processing and mailing of ballots. One member of the State Board of Elections admitted that not every voter who properly requested an absentee ballot would received one by the deadline.

The Court of Appeals did not state its reasoning in its order denying Fritszche’s motion.

lbroadwater@baltimoreexaminer.com