Posted on 07/27/2008 9:36:06 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Military Postal Service Agency is preparing measures for this election season that officials say will help absentee ballots move through the military mail system.
From Sept. 1 to Nov. 25, the military mail will prioritize absentee ballots, which will be specially marked and tagged, and personnel will be instructed to deal with those parcels first.
Postal personnel involved will be briefed and trained soon, according to Faye Johnson, MPSA chief of operations. They will be instructed that "whenever they see trays, tubs or anything with absentee ballots, that is to be expedited."
Mail room personnel also will be told that if they don’t have enough transportation for all the mail on a given day, ballot bags or bins will go first, she said.
Also, the U.S. Postal Service receives special funds every election year to send absentee ballots by Express Mail during the last week of the election, she said. That will start on Oct. 29 and should cut off about two days’ worth of transportation time.
It is not known how many overseas voters are able to cast absentee ballots successfully. Approximately 119,000 overseas military personnel requested absentee ballots for the 2006 election, but only about 57 percent of those were successfully cast and counted. About 900,000 ballots were requested in 2006 out of the estimated 6 million overseas military and civilian Americans.
(Excerpt) Read more at stripes.com ...
Even if they get there the demoncrats will try to find ways to avoid counting them.
I wouldn’t be surprised if support units were given priority over combat units.
I ain’t saying why.
I don’t doubt it one bit
I wouldn’t be surprised either.
With “fast Eddy Rendell” doing the work, the dems will be sure to screw those who defend this country.
The left are the lowest of the low.
They’re having to do this themselves because they have received NO help from Congress.
I think this is a shame, but no surprise. Look how the military absentee ballots were treated in the 2000 election in Florida
See H. Res. 388 from 8 July 2008.
H.CON.RES.388
Title: Expressing the sense of Congress that the Department of Defense and the Federal Voting Assistance Program should take certain additional and timely measures to ensure that members of the Armed Forces and their dependents are provided with reasonable information on how to register to vote and vote in the 2008 general elections.
Sponsor: Rep Blunt, Roy [MO-7] (introduced 7/8/2008) Cosponsors (14)
Latest Major Action: 7/25/2008 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Military Personnel.
COSPONSORS(14), ALPHABETICAL [followed by Cosponsors withdrawn]: (Sort: by date)
Rep Cole, Tom [OK-4] - 7/8/2008
Rep Dreier, David [CA-26] - 7/24/2008
Rep Ehlers, Vernon J. [MI-3] - 7/8/2008
Rep Fallin, Mary [OK-5] - 7/14/2008
Rep Hastings, Doc [WA-4] - 7/22/2008
Rep Hayes, Robin [NC-8] - 7/8/2008
Rep Heller, Dean [NV-2] - 7/8/2008
Rep Hunter, Duncan [CA-52] - 7/8/2008
Rep McCarthy, Kevin [CA-22] - 7/8/2008
Rep McCaul, Michael T. [TX-10] - 7/9/2008
Rep Miller, Candice S. [MI-10] - 7/8/2008
Rep Putnam, Adam H. [FL-12] - 7/9/2008
Rep Smith, Lamar [TX-21] - 7/8/2008
Rep Wilson, Joe [SC-2] - 7/9/2008
**HOW MANY ‘RATS DO YOU SEE HERE to ENSURE THAT EVERY VOTE COUNTS???***
By 7 p.m., the Democrats protested against 147 absentee ballots. The canvassing board agreed to hear formal arguments from the Gore and Bush camps.
A full 19 hours after it began, the nightmarish battle over Duval´s military ballots came to an end. When the canvassing board announced that the ballots of 149 soldiers, sailors and airmen had been disqualified, a pair of jubilant Gore lawyers actually exchanged high-fives for their victory against America’s service personnel.
“A Republican, visibly shaken by this sight, demanded to know how they could celebrate the disenfranchisement of U.S. military personnel risking their lives around the world. One of the Gore lawyers glibly replied: ‘A win´s a win.’”
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/5/8/225831.shtml
Exactly! We’ll never know how many citizens serving overseas had their votes thrown out by the ‘Rats.
How many of you have seen ANYTHING about this in the media this month??
I’ve wondered that since 2000.
As Mr. Herron's memorandum made clear, the Gore campaign sought to disqualify as many overseas ballots as possible, knowing that the state's complement of military voters overseas had regularly voted Republican in other elections. They pushed county election officials to apply the strictest interpretation of the rules.
I hope the Dems fail again.
“Exactly! We’ll never know how many citizens serving overseas had their votes thrown out by the ‘Rats.”
At the time, it was reported that an entire Navy battle group’s votes were disqualified because the postal clerks on the aircraft carrier did not have time to stamp them with postmarks.
The law required that they either arrive on time or be postmarked by a specific date. Even though these military ballots arrived on time, the demonrats used the excuse that they were missing postmarkts to throw them out.
All that is needed is Republican post office observers with axe handles and authority to beat senseless all demonrats caught ratholing ballots.
When all this was happening, we lived in PBC. My husband is also military, so we had quite a close eye on this disgraceful scandal.
One would think that those who are actively defending our nation on the front lines should have their votes handled with extreme care — and yes...even moreso than the freakin’ Palm Beachers who couldn’t understand where to poke their hole on the ballot.
That'll cause the Dems to soil their knickers-n-bloomers.
I have sealed absentee ballots from 2000 and 2004 with the date they came to my hand and my signature on them. Whether they will ever have historical value, or will even be moderately interesting curiosities, I don’t know.
Of course the demorats support the troops(yeah, right). They just don’t want their votes to count.
I spent about 5 years in the military postal system. Ballot mail was always clearly marked and received special expedited treatment.
Demorats fear military voters because troops are better informed, understand the real world and recognize phony politicians even when half a world away. Translation: military members vote conservative 99.9%.
And here's another dirty secret: If your absentee ballot wasn't counted, you didn't vote. If you haven't voted over several years (because your absentee ballots haven't been allowed), you are dropped from the rolls (without any notification, of course). If you are not on the rolls, all further absentee ballots are invalid.
Excellent idea!
I recommend taking it a step further. Instead of just presidential elections, expand it to all national elections. Service members could only vote on national candidates running in their state of residence. But this could be readily accomplished.
Once this sytem has proven itself and the mechanisms worked out with the states, it could be gradually expanded to include all state and local elections.
But first, federal elections need to be addressed for service members.
They should be transfered under armed guard.
No disrepect, but how do you know that?
The military supervisors also need to be held accountable by their service for getting the troops registered and providing a reasonable opportunity to vote.
After retiring and while taking care of “transition” business at my home-of-record county courthouse, I checked on my voter registration status. I was shocked to find I had been dropped from the rolls because “I had not voted”! This was despite the fact that I had regularly sent in absentee ballots...both those provided by the county and the federal absentee ballots when local ballots were not available.
Basically, my ballots vanished into a black hole. No way to track or verify anything. Lot of room for mischief there.
RATS will have to try harder to have them un-counted.
No one can require a service member to register/vote. That will always be his responsibility and choice. But the services do aid service members to vote.
During my day each Navy Command had a Voting Officer. Though this was normally a collateral duty, the Voting Officer’s main tasks were to; keep the command informed about voting deadlines, facilitate obtaining/completing/casting absentee ballots, and ensure the command’s postal clerk dispatched ballots expeditiously.
I doubt these things have changed significantly. However, were your ideas to be implemented, big changes would occur. A voting system would have to be created which worked closely with the states. And the Voting Officer’s tasks would increase tremendously.
I believe your ideas could and should be implemented. That would be a DOD responsibility. The rest would be up to the each service member.
Of course you can’t force them to vote but make it easier for them to do so.
FRegards,
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.