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WASHINGTON - One out of every four ballots requested by military personnel and other Americans living overseas for the 2008 election may have gone uncounted, according to findings released at a Senate hearing. Sen. Charles Schumer, chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, said the study released Wednesday, while providing only a snapshot of voting patterns, "is enough to show that the balloting process for service members is clearly in need of an overhaul." The committee, working with the Congressional Research Service, surveyed election offices in seven states with high numbers of military personnel: California, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania,...

“Cheered wildly by U.S. troops,” begins Jennifer Democratic Operative Loven’s AP report on Obama’s surprise visit to Iraq on Tuesday. Quite a contrast to the silent treatment Marines gave Obama at his Camp LeJeune speech in late February. Just how did Obama manage to fix that little problem? According to a sergeant in Iraq : *****We were pre-screened, asked by officials “Who voted for Obama?”, and then those who raised their hands were shuffled to the front of the receiving line. They even handed out digital cameras and asked them to hold them up. [Via Macsmind.]**** As supporting evidence for...

In its recent order, the three-judge election contest court in Minnesota reiterated a common theme during the Coleman versus Franken Senate recount--notwithstanding the numerous questions raised regarding the fairness of the election, "Citizens of Minnesota should be proud of their electoral system, a system which has one of the highest voter-participation rates in the country." The court emphasized: "the facts presented thus far do not show a wholesale disenfranchisement of absentee voters in the 2008 general election." Accordingly, without any discussion of those facts, the court refused to review several groups of absentee ballots including many rejected ballots from military...

Only 25 votes separate Republican Tim Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy in the special election for New York’s 20th district. That means the winner will be determined by 6,000 outstanding absentee ballots. According to the Department of Justice, 1,300 overseas voters requested absentee ballots, 471 of whom are military voters. Unfortunately, it is the military voters who will probably end up being disenfranchised and having their votes discounted, thanks to the irresponsible New York Board of Elections and the half-hearted actions of the Department of Justice. The problem for military voters in places like Iraq and Afghanistan is that it...

The outcome of a special Congressional election in New York’s 20th Congressional District will likely turn on the illegal exclusion of up to 1,000 overseas military ballots, which otherwise would have tipped the race in favor of James Tedisco (R). Tedisco and Scott Murphy (D) are in a dead heat, with 77,225 votes each. Democrats on the state elections board blocked GOP attempts to allow overseas military voting in the special election. Overseas ballots take weeks to reach voters and be returned unless special measures are taken to speed things up. But the elections officials refused to do anything to...

A recent Military Times survey of active-duty service members found 6 of 10 U.S. soldiers polled said they were "pessimistic" or "uncertain" about Barack Obama serving as commander in chief of America's armed forces. In follow-up interviews reported by the Army Times newspaper, respondents cited Obama's inexperience in leading soldiers, his plans for accelerated removal of troops from Iraq and his pledge to overturn the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy regarding homosexual service members as reasons for their cautious outlook. "Being that the Marine Corps can be sent anywhere in the world with the snap of his fingers," said...

Monday, December 29, 2008 Posted By:Catherine MoyPermalinkChange is Coming for U.S. Troops The election of Barack Obama as America’s next president has many of our troops confounded. Six out of 10 active service members are worried about Obama as commander in chief, according to a Military Times poll. “Being that the Marine Corps can be sent anywhere in the world with the snap of his fingers, nobody has confidence in this guy as commander in chief,” said one lance corporal who asked not to be identified. For eight years, members of the U.S. military have served under a Republican commander...

When asked how they feel about President-elect Barack Obama as commander in chief, six out of 10 active-duty service members say they are uncertain or pessimistic, according to a Military Times survey. In follow-up interviews, respondents expressed concerns about Obama's lack of military service and experience leading men and women in uniform. ''Being that the Marine Corps can be sent anywhere in the world with the snap of his fingers, nobody has confidence in this guy as commander in chief," said one lance corporal who asked not to be identified. Underlying much of the uncertainty is Obama's stated 16-month timetable...

President-elect Obama stopped by the Marine Corps base in Hawaii Kaneche Bay where servicemen and -women were eating Christmas dinner in Kailua Thursday evening. As Obama entered the room, it was absent of the regular fanfare of cheering and clapping. The diners were polite, staying seated at their respective tables and waited for the president-elect to come to them to stand up.

The last time the United States elected a Democrat as its president to govern with a majority-Democratic Congress, an immediate fracas arose over gays in the military, reinforcing a partisan story line that Democrats can't be trusted with the nation's security. Sixteen years later, some will certainly be watching how deftly President-elect Barack Obama salutes, or how House Speaker Nancy_Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid say the Pledge of Allegiance. These are symbols, of course, but the national security challenges the nation faces now are anything but symbolic: two wars, an ongoing terrorist menace, a growing list of unmet...

Facing the loss of his seat, U.S. Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr. said Thursday that all late-arriving absentee ballots cast by U.S. troops overseas should be counted as part of next week’s recount in his 5th District race. A federal judge in Richmond ruled Tuesday that Virginia’s State Board of Elections violated the law by mailing out absentee ballots to military voters too late for them to send back their ballot by Election Day. However, the judge added that the 4,750 such ballots across the state need not be counted, as they would not change the outcome of any race...

Voting experts are expecting a huge wave of military absentee ballots this year. The 184,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have a lot at stake in the vote to choose their next commander-in-chief. The mechanics of military voting are better than they used to be. But "better" doesn't always cut it for troops in war zones. Teresa Purcell got a call from her husband nine days before Election Day. "You're not going to believe this," he said, "we're not going to be allowed to vote for president of the United States because we're not getting the ballots." Robert Purcell was...

Saw video on the tube this morning of troops "watching the results" on the tv in a cafeteria. they didn't look happy at all that hussein was their next "commander in chief". i feel bad for them---a guy who once said their lives were being "wasted" in Iraq is now going to be in charge of their work.

Our military troops have to jump over great obstables to vote. And then the ballots may not be counted. Take for example the status of North Carolina with 99% in. The popular vote if 50% - 50% spilt. It is only a few thousand separating McCain winning a mistake. If all the military vote was counted and it was heavily McCain, it might chain the status of this state being for McCain and not for Obama. So maybe one thing to change after this elecion is make sure the miliatry is able to vote in a quick and easy way....

"Because many counties in Virginia failed to mail absentee ballots in time to our men and women in uniform stationed overseas, service members are being disenfranchised because they are unable to return their ballots before the November 4 deadline," campaign spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said in a written statement about the suit, which is scheduled to be heard in Williams' courtroom at 1:30 p.m. today. Chesapeake, Suffolk and Virginia Beach are among the localities cited in the lawsuit as those that mailed absentee ballots overseas in late September. The suit argues that service members didn't have enough time to cast their...

RICHMOND, Va.: Republican John McCain's presidential campaign sued the Virginia election board Monday, claiming absentee ballots weren't mailed on time to military members serving overseas. The complaint asks the U.S. District Court in Richmond to order the state to count absentee ballots postmarked by Tuesday and received by Nov. 14. It contends that thousands of troops' ballots, many of which would go to McCain, will not be counted. The deadline for ballots to be received is 7 p.m. Election Day, which is Tuesday. The lawsuit is the second in a week to challenge preparations for the presidential election in Virginia,...

Dear America, As you well know, our military folks are loosing their right to vote in droves this election. http://www.foxnews.com/video-search/m/21310185/ballot_battle.htm?pageid=27100 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2122304/posts They're ballots are being thrown in the garbage and turned away. These men and women are putting their lives on the line to preserve our right to live in security and not in fear. Please, consider this: If standing in a three or four hour long line seems too difficult, too uncomfortable for them, imagine standing in 120' heat in full "battle rattle" with a 40 pound rucksack for hours on end. Driving to the voting booth is tricky...

For U.S. troops serving overseas, nothing comes easy. Not even voting. Military members may not have enough time to complete and mail in their absentee ballots for Tuesday's election, thanks to slow mail delivery, lack of information sharing among election officials, and procedural errors. In the 2006 elections, about a third of the close to 1 million absentee ballots requested by uniformed overseas voters were returned and tallied, essentially disenfranchising the remaining 600,000-plus service members, according to the federal Election Assistance Commission. Barack Obama and John McCain have called on state election officials to reduce the voting obstacles for preventing...

Low Return On Absentee Ballots Expected; Some Officers Refuse To Vote To Underscore Political Neutrality. Soldiers must request by mail an absentee ballot from the local election district where they last lived. Then they are sent a paper ballot to fill out and mail back. Some soldiers said they never got ballots. The number of absentee military ballots applied for that ultimately get counted is consistently low. In the last federal election, only about 30 percent of overseas military ballots were tallied...

Rokey Suleman Fairfax County General Registrar 703-222-0776 Rokey.Suleman@fairfaxcounty.gov