I'm traveling back in time to vote for W...
As many times as it takes!
Posted on 08/06/2004 4:16:27 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
Thousands of votes from U.S. troops overseas could go uncounted again in November without emergency legislation extending deadlines for the ballots, a Chicago election official warned President Bush in a letter Tuesday. Nearly 30 percent of military voters who requested ballots in 2000 didn’t get them in time to vote. Theresa M. Petrone, a Democratic member of Chicago’s three-person Board of Election Commissioners, told Bush the problem could be solved if he proposed emergency legislation giving election officials up to 14 days after Election Day to collect and count ballots.
Deadlines vary, but most states, including Illinois, require that ballots be received by Election Day. Other states, including Ohio and Florida, count them for up to 10 or more days later, as long as they were signed by Election Day.
“Every election cycle, election authorities such as Chicago receive military absentee ballots days or even weeks after the deadline, thus disqualifying these votes from being included in the election tally,” Petrone wrote. “With hundreds of thousands of military personnel serving overseas, the voting bloc obviously could determine the outcome of our next presidential election.”
White House spokesman Ken Lisaius declined to comment, saying he hadn’t seen the letter. Congressional leaders have opposed amending the Help America Vote Act of 2002 and such emergency legislation is unlikely before November.
The handling of military ballots was a major issue in the ballot recount in Florida in 2000 that led to Bush’s victory, when election officials rejected hundreds of military absentee ballots, many because they lacked postmarks or signatures.
With many more troops overseas now because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, military voting could be an even bigger issue this year. Some 250,000 absentee ballot request forms were sent to military personnel overseas who asked for them in 2000, while 340,000 already had been sent as of mid-July for the Nov. 2 election, said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Joe Richard.
Critics have accused the Pentagon of doing little to improve systems for getting ballots to and from service members. A report by the Defense Department’s inspector general in April said problems hadn’t been fixed, and a required study by a new voting commission on getting ballots to military and other overseas voters is overdue.
Still, Richard said the military is working to raise awareness among troops and improve methods by the U.S. Postal Service.
“I can only tell you that the secretary of defense and senior leadership of the Defense Department, certainly all the services, have made a concentrated effort to ensure that some of the difficulties that were experienced in 2000, primarily with delivery of ballots, will not recur,” he said.
From the AP
As many times as it takes!
This smacks of Dem attempts to discourage voting and preemptive maneuvering to discount the overseas ballots.
I have written my Congressional rep., my two senators and copied the DOD. I'm encouraging others around me here to do the same.
If they're going to start making noise about this, then we who stand to be disenfranchised need to make noise right back.
Here's one vote-counting fight the RAT lawyers won't push, unless it is to oppose!
Oddly enough I read that one too. It makes me so angry. Honestly they have had how long to ensure their votes count ... what have they done for the last 4 years.
I'm suggesting that Federal Elections, for Pres and VP, Senators, House of Rep and Governors remain in November. All other elections are held at another date.
slightly off topic..well maybe not.
Judging from the high visibility activities of "Democrats Abroad" here in Barcelona (voter registration drives, meetings, publicity, Q&A pamphlets etc), it would be a good thing for Republicans if the civilian absentee votes were not counted. at least the ones from here.
This must be addressed before the Nov. elections. I am sick and tired of the military being treated like second class citizens when they are protecting the country and their votes may not be counted.
This is a crime. As far as I'm concerned, military votes should be stamped in gold and hand-delivered to the polls. Those who serve our country with blood, sweat and giving up a chunk of their lifetime should have the MOST right to determine our elected officials.
Maybe there are a lot of liberals there, but here in Iraq there are thousands of American civilians and the vast majority of us are for Bush.
Bottom line is, no matter which candidate they are supporting, Americans overseas should not be disenfranchised. Especially the military...the very people who are protecting our right to vote.
This is such crap, optical scanners and data transmittions would have the results in election officials hands in an matter of minutes.
Come on, If we can send Billions to save the Africans from infecting their own with Aids we sure as hell put forthe the effort and accomplish this by November.
Approximately 7,000 civilians just with my company alone are in Iraq and Kuwait. There are lots of other American companies here now with varying numbers of expat employees.
A lot of votes.
And that's not even counting all the U.S. military in the region.
I emailed my State and Federal senators, representative as well as the MO SoS, MO attorney general, and attorney general AShcroft yesterday about this issue.
Although I woudn't put it past the Dems to do that, I think this sets the stage for something more sinister.
The councilwoman is asking for a 'grace' period of 2-3 weeks after the National election in order to rig the results with phony 'military ballots' - which would be unassailable - if they don't like the original vote count.
I don't understand - why aren't the absentee ballots mailed TO the military overseas early with instructions to return them weeks PRIOR to the election? Isn't that how it is done in most places?
Bug-eyed Chad Search
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