Posted on 07/23/2008 9:49:33 PM PDT by Kaslin
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Roy Blunt, the House Republican whip, on July 8 introduced a resolution demanding that the Defense Department better enable U.S. military personnel overseas to vote in the November elections. That act was followed by silence. Democrats normally leap on an opportunity to find fault with the Bush Pentagon. But not a single Democrat joined Blunt as a co-sponsor, and an all-Republican proposal cannot pass in the Democratic-controlled House.
Analysis by the federal Election Assistance Commission, rejecting inflated Defense Department voting claims, estimated overseas and absentee military voting for the 2006 midterm elections at a disgracefully low 5.5 percent. The quality of voting statistics is so poor that there is no way to tell how many of the slightly over 330,000 votes actually were sent in by the absentee military voters and their dependents and how many by civilian Americans living abroad -- 6 million all total.
Nobody who has studied the question objectively sees any improvement since 2006, and that is a scandal. Retired U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Charles Henry wrote in the July issue of the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings: "While virtually everyone involved seems to agree that military people deserve at least equal opportunity when it comes to having their votes counted, indications are that in November 2008, many thousands of service members who try to vote will do so in vain."
Henry, now an independent broadcast journalist, has personal experience with this enduring scandal. While serving as a Marine at sea off Iran, he received his 1980 presidential ballot too late to count. President Harry Truman said of troops fighting in Korea, "The least we at home can do is to make sure that they are able to enjoy the rights they are being asked to fight to preserve." But the U.S. military that has so perfected the art of war over the past half-century is at a loss to enable soldiers to vote.
A combat officer has enough to do without handling the votes of troopers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. A Defense Department Inspector General's report in March last year recommended "appointment of civilian personnel" as "voting assistance officers." The Pentagon brass rejected the idea.
I reported four years ago that the problems of 2000 overseas military voting had not been corrected for the 2004 presidential election. At that time, Under Secretary of Defense David Chu was put in charge of the problem. During massive turnover at the Pentagon, Chu remains in place -- best known among critics of the military vote problem for his chronic failure to return telephone calls.
Congressional attention to the problem has been scattered and limited mostly to Republicans such as Sen. John Cornyn, who earlier this year decried "a lack of will" at the Pentagon to solve the voting problem. Democratic interest about tackling the problem might be tempered by apprehension that soldiers will cast too many Republican votes.
Nevertheless, at least one prominent Democrat -- House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer -- described himself to me as eager to deal with this problem. (Hoyer's home state of Maryland is one of the worst offenders, with ballots of only 4.1 percent of overseas voters counted in 2006.) Hoyer and Blunt, who have become friendly adversaries in a bitterly partisan Congress, conferred several weeks ago and agreed in principle on co-sponsoring a resolution aimed at getting the Defense Department moving.
Hoyer wanted the resolution to cover expatriate Americans as well as the military, and Blunt did not object. They turned the issue over to their staffers and went about the business of major legislation. Blunt had instructed his staff to seek agreement with Democrats but, if not, to introduce a resolution applying only to the military, which was the outcome.
One presidential staffer who is familiar with the situation privately dismisses the Pentagon bureaucrats as "hopeless." In a lame-duck administration counting the days before a troubled eight years finally end, American fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan deprived of their right to vote constitute the least of White House worries.
Can you image the military voting for the Obomonation?
I suspect ICY POLITENESS is what he ran into when he met the military in Iraq.
This is really disheartening.
Well if you remember Al Gore tried to prevent the military vote from being counted in the 2000 election
The Dems in general prevent the military vote. This time won’t be any different... it’ll probably be worse.
A complete disgrace! The Military ballots should count two times. I’m ready for a Civil War. Our side gets the Military.
“I’m ready for a Civil War”
Ok. How do we organize.
Curious if our Military personnel, Military Support Personnel, Diplomats, etc. overseas couldn’t have a Voter Card, similar to a credit card, and a secure system such as PayPal is for Credit Card transactions (or the like) be initiated in which those whom wish to vote could, and actually be legitimately tallied.
There is a way to conquer this problem if the will to do so is there. Our Military have the right, and they have the desire to participate in that which they so gallantly fight for.
“Can you image the military voting for the Obomonation?”
The vast majority of black soldiers who vote will vote for Obama. I have talked to many of them, and I can assure you that they are no different than the general population this time around.
There is no policy, position, belief, or record he has not changed during the campaign.
I question who among Americans of african descent is not voting for BHO because of race.
Makes me wonder how the statement below would be interpreted
"I am voting for my candidate because he is white"
Heard that it will be harder than ever for the military and others overseas to vote this year. This is said to be because of the late primaries in some states. Have you heard anything like this?
This would be a GREAT campaign issue for McCain to take the lead on.
Alas, Republicans do not like to make waves.
Tried? with the help of the Chicago political machine he succeeded in disallowing the vast majority of overseas military votes. That same Chicago machine now has a horse in the race.
When I was in the Navy stationed in Yokosuka, Japan one of the guys who worked for me who's registered to vote in California requested an absentee ballot from the State at the earliest opportunity for the 2000 general elections.
It was about a month out from the election and this guy hadn't received his ballot and he was getting kind of nervous.
We all thought it funny because he would pace around mumbling to himself about the darn ballot.
It was now two weeks from the deadline and he was only getting worse so I had him contact the Commands Voting Assistance Officer who's job was to assist in this type of situation.
This Officer e-mailed the Secretary Of States Office and they assured him that the ballot had already been mailed and it would be there by the deadline with time to spare.
Well it was now a week out and still no ballot.
So the Voting Asstance Officer went as far as to make a phone call at something like 3 in the mourning Japan time to Secretary Of States Office in California.
He was told that the ballot must have been lost in the mail and he agreed that this must be the case and the they'd now send another ballot by to my guy by express mail.
Well to make this story short he never received a ballot, he never had a chance to vote and of course no one was held accountable from the States Office as far as we could determine even after they were informed that the ballot never arrived.
Schmucks that voted rat or stayed home in 2006 because they were too conservative to vote Republican because of foley or something else, please take note. Actions and inactions have consequences. You brought us the “more conservative” blue dog rats. Now everyone of them has stabbed us in the back. Thanks to you we still don’t have a way to insure the Military its vote and the rat has another voter fraud tool in its bag of dirty tricks.
I don’t doubt that, but I have been wondering if this time they would facilitate military voting just because they are so sure BO has so much military support?
Looks like the answer is no.
It's a sad fact that most military absent-T ballots are disqualified for some reason. When I was stationed in Europe in the mid 80's we were informed that all of the ballets from our base had been submitted after some arbitrary deadline and were invalid.
I also remember a case where the ballets we were given while serving overseas were not the most current ones and were also invalidated and destroyed.
Steny Hoyer’s actions make this article worthy of a...
Maryland “Freak State” PING!
FYI...
BTTT!
Thank you very much for that link. I just forwarded it to the AF JAG Reserve Executive Council members so we can discuss what we can do to allow deployed and overseas servicemembers to exercise the rights they’re defending. Will advise this forum as things progress, as I think there are some go-getters posting and lurking at FR!
Colonel, USAFR
Canteen ping.
This is disheartening, but not surprising when you consider
how the democrats hate an open debate and/or election.
They know how the troops would and WILL vote!
You racist you!!!
That’s how......
Unfortunately, their side gets the lawyers. We’d be sooo doomed.
Only 90%? Heck, the Democrats usually get that much of the Black vote...
Maybe the ‘Pubbies are the ones who need to consider “actions and inactions have consequences?”
We’ll do our part if they do theirs. If not...
Yes, most troops will not vote for the BO. I still would like to know how the soldiers in BO’s photo op were selected. I would think he visited one or two units and would like to see the racial makeup of those units before deployment compared to what we saw in the pictures. I’d bet that many refused to meet him and the DBM asked for “people of color” as fillers.
I had sent it out 2 months PRIOR to its due date!!
I was not the only one in my CAV Troop whose vote was returned.
At least the Left is consistent. Totalitarian socialism at full speed.....
Made myself sound like a democrat voting assistant for a second...
I expect he asked for and got the 5 soldiers who WOULD vote
for him so he wouldn’t end up with a Hilary moment with a
soldier who would give a “secret” signal to the rest of them! LOL!
I expect BLACKS to vote for the Obomnation. For them it is all about RACE. I am referring to rational, non- racists. The Obomination cannot win soley on the BLACK vote. THe majority of the military is NOT BLACK. WHITES and HISPANICS dominate our military.
Here’s a bump.
The DNC created a trifold pamphlet which explained, the military would vote overwhelmingly for the GOP. Since they expected the race to be close, disallowing absentee ballots was crucial. It went on about ways to disallow absentee ballots mailed from overseas military bases.
I saw the pamphlet online but didn't capture a copy. Does anybody have a pdf or jpeg?
August 19, 2004, 8:23 a.m.
Disenfranchised Defenders
Avoiding a repeat of 2000.
On November 19, 2000, we discovered that there are no limits to what Democrats will do to win an election. The same Democrats who so often and so loudly protest any real or imagined threat to a minority’s right to vote had desperately worked to disenfranchise a minority group thought to be friendly to the other side.
With the presidential election hanging by a loose chad in Palm Beach County, Florida, Dems launched their campaign to disenfranchise military absentee voters. The memo instructing Democratic election canvassers on the best means to do so — authored by lawyer Mark Herron — fell into the hands of a Republican worker, and the Drudge Report promptly published it.
The Herron memo stated postmark and “point of origin” criteria Herron maintained could be used to invalidate military ballots. Conveniently, the memo attached a form that could be duplicated and used to protest the validity of individual ballots. By the time the Herron memo made headlines, the Dems were challenging more than 1,500 absentee ballots (which grew to more than 2,400) mostly from soldiers overseas. This was almost three times the number of votes — 537 — that proved to be Bush’s margin of victory. Had the Herron scam succeeded, and protests against those votes been sustained, Al Gore would be in the White House today.
This problem is not unique to Florida, and it didn’t just happen in 2000. According to the results of a survey by the Reserve Officers’ Association, ROA estimates that the disenfranchisement rate among military personnel who try to vote in Florida, Missouri, and South Carolina is 40-45 percent.
It’s not the hypocrisy of what the Florida Dems did that still rankles; what’s most bothersome is who they tried to do it to. Every American has the right to vote, but were it not for the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen who put themselves in harm’s way, none of us would have that right. The warriors and their families have long memories, and this time they’re determined to vote.
For once, at the insistence of Don Rumsfeld, the folks in Fort Fumble are acting, not reacting, to solve this problem before it repeats itself.
On March 17, Rumsfeld sent a memo to the Joint Chiefs and Combatant Commanders telling them how the services will make sure all military members — and their family members — who are overseas, or stationed here but are away from home, get the chance to vote, and vote so that no Mark Herrons can disenfranchise them.
At the heart of Rumsfeld’s plan is putting some teeth into the old Voting Assistance Officer idea. On top of it is a strategy — now underway — to use both the internet and the Postal Service effectively to help servicemen and their families request absentee ballots and get them returned in time to be counted. Last Friday, I spoke to Charlie Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness. He’s the guy who’s leading the charge to protect the rights of military voters and their families.
Abell told me that this is a very high priority for DoD, because it’s a very high priority for the troops and their families, who have a much higher voter turnout — proportionally — than the general population. He said, “We know from sampling from the Federal Election Commission [and other sources] that in year 2000, about 51 percent of the general public voted. We know from our surveys that about 75 percent of the worldwide uniformed services military...voted.” Over the years, the DoD data show — unsurprisingly — that those who fight for the right to vote take that right more seriously than other Americans.
About 200,000 military personnel who tried to vote in 1988 didn’t because they didn’t get their absentee ballots at all, or got them too late to send them back in. Now absentee ballots will be separated from regular mail and sent both ways — to the soldier, and back to be counted — faster than the normal military mail. According to Abell, the Postal Service has agreed to pick up ballots directly from the local precincts and ballot offices, separate them into special containers, and send them by Priority Mail to the absentee military members. Return mail will work the same way. In the 2000 election, many military absentee ballots were disallowed because they lacked postmarks, which aren’t a requirement. Now, to make sure there’s no repeat of this chicanery, military postal workers are being ordered to hand-cancel every ballot that is sent out to show clearly when it was mailed. Sorry, Mr. Herron: You’ll have to think up another scam this time.
Rumsfeld’s initiative is trying to reach all 1.4 million active-duty members as well as 1.3 million military family members, the majority of whom are living away from home, either overseas or stateside. And this initiative is serious: Every military unit, small or large, has a Voting Assistance Officer whose job it is to let the soldiers know how they can get their absentee ballots, and then help them do so. Abell told me that the goal was for the ratio to be one Voting Assistance Officer for every unit of 25 to 50 people.
The plan’s niftiest aspect is the use of the internet to enable soldiers to request absentee ballots — and then to download the actual ballot to fill out and send in. Right now, any soldier or family member can download the Federal Post Card Application from the government website designed to help all overseas voters and send it in. Better still, the Defense Department is getting all the state-ballot request forms and the ballots themselves loaded onto the system. Most of the states are cooperating by allowing internet and even faxed ballot requests.
Rumsfeld’s memo says, “I want to ensure each service member is handed the Federal Post Card Application and is offered assistance in completing the form if needed.” Voting Assistance Officers will help fill out the request forms and — when soldiers ask — help them properly fill out and mail back the actual ballots. Rumsfeld has tasked the commanders to designate October 11-15 as Absentee Voting Week. If the ballots are mailed by October 15, they’ll all be where they need to be in time to be counted. And that is the ultimate goal.
That goal will conflict directly with the coming repeats of the Herron Florida scam. If you think the Dems won’t attack military absentee ballots in 2004, think again. Military voters are more Republican than Democrat, and much more conservative than liberal. The Dems know that, and I don’t doubt that they will do this year what they tried to do in 2000.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!” But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot; An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please; An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!
And Tommy votes, God bless him. Each and every one of us has a duty to help him do it. Let’s get the word out.
— NRO contributor Jed Babbin is the author of Inside the Asylum: Why the U.N. and Old Europe are Worse than You Think.
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