By Alabama Public Radio
Washington DC – The US Justice Department could file a lawsuit against Alabama to force the state to form a plan to ensure voting rights for military personnel stationed overseas. Secretary of State Nancy Worley says she received a letter from federal officials this week say the lawsuit had been authorized. That suit would call for a voting plan to be in place so soldiers can vote in the June 27th primary runoff elections. The problem lies in the amount of time it takes to print ballots, send them overseas, have them marked, returned and counted. Runoff ballots can't be printed until after the June 6th primaries, and the lawsuit could cause the state to delay the runoffs until after the July fourth holiday. It currently takes ten to 15 days to get mail to many soldiers fighting in Iraq, which makes it nearly impossible to deliver the ballots and have them returned in the 21 days between the primary and the runoffs. The letter gives the state until March tenth to form its plan.