Louise Amato stood outside the State Board of Elections office at 1100 Bank St. in Richmond yesterday and held up a large sign that read: “Those who count the votes, decide everything.“ She was quoting the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin and making the point that late absentee ballots from military personnel serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere should be counted.

A federal judge in Richmond has ruled for the second time that Virginia violated the voting rights of American military personnel and overseas citizens by failing to mail absentee ballots in sufficient time for them to be counted in last year’s presidential election. “The right to vote means a right to cast a ballot that will be counted,“ U.S. District Court Judge Richard L. Williams ruled Thursday.

A federal judge has ordered the state to count absentee ballots that were mailed too late to military personnel overseas last year.

A federal judge ruled yesterday that the State Board of Elections violated federal law by mailing absentee ballots to military personnel overseas too late for them to return the ballots in time to vote. U.S. District Judge Richard L. Williams said he would not fashion a remedy himself but leave it to the U.S. Department of Justice and the State Board of Elections to come up with a plan that would prevent such mishaps in future elections.