Shades of 2000?

In the year 2000, the State of Florida had a problem with their ballots as we all can remember very well. The term dangling chad entered the lexicon and the election was finally decided by the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore.

Now the same might happen in this election.

A federal judge has ordered election officials in Virginia to preserve late-arriving absentee ballots that Republican John McCain's campaign claims should be counted.

The McCain campaign says in a lawsuit that absentee ballots weren't mailed on time to many military members serving overseas. The complaint asks the court to order the state to count absentee ballots from overseas troops postmarked by Tuesday and received by Nov. 14.

The deadline for ballots to be received is 7 p.m. on Election Day.

U.S. District Judge Richard Williams said Tuesday that he will hear the lawsuit on Nov. 10. He ordered election officials to keep the late-arriving ballots until then.

It isn't the fault of the military men and women of the State of Virginia that they didn't receive their ballots in time. It is the fault of the Registar of Voters of Virginia. The ballots should be counted.

If the vote is close, then each of the Absentee Votes should and must be counted.

This could go on for weeks again. And who knows what the outcome could be.