Posted on 01/02/2005 3:25:43 PM PST by Former Military Chick
Thankfully, our nation was spared a lengthy and contentious recount in the Presidential race this time, but the same cannot be said for the State of Washington and its gubernatorial election. Finally, on December 23, Democrat Attorney General Christine Gregoire was certified the winner over Republican State Senator Dino Rossi, by 130 votes out of 2.9 million cast - a difference of 0.000048. This margin could easily have been accounted for by overseas military personnel who tried to vote, but whose ballots were not counted.
Rear Admiral (Retired) James J. Carey, a regular Military.com columnist, founded the National Defense Committee (NDC), and I am the Director of the NDC's Military Voting Rights Project. At considerable trouble and expense, NDC has obtained fax numbers for the nation's 5,000 local election officials (LEOs), including the 39 County Auditors in Washington. NDC also has automated equipment capable of sending out 5,000 faxes in about 24 hours.
In the last 15 months (September 2003 to December 2004), the NDC has sent out 35 broadcast faxes to the 5,000 LEOs. In November and again in December, we distributed a questionnaire that I devised, tracking how many military and overseas absentee ballot requests the LEO received, how many absentee ballots the LEO mailed to those applicants, and how many of those ballots came back on time and were counted. More than 500 LEOs have completed and returned our questionnaire, including Yakima County Auditor Corky Mattingly and Grays Harbor County Auditor Vern Spatz.
Military personnel and family members and overseas American civilians almost always use the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) when registering to vote and applying for absentee ballots, because this Federal form is generally available from military and State Department voting assistance officers, and because Federal law requires all states to accept the FPCA as a simultaneous voter registration application and absentee ballot request. Accordingly, our questionnaire starts with the number of completed FPCAs that the LEO received.
Yakima County reports receiving 316 completed FPCAs and mailing ballots to all but one of those applicants. (That one applicant forgot to provide his or her date of birth.) Of the 315 ballots mailed, only 219 came back on time and were counted. Grays Harbor County reports receiving 196 completed FPCAs and mailing ballots to all of those applicants. Only 156 of those ballots came back on time and were counted. In just these two medium-sized counties, there were 136 disenfranchised military/overseas voters-voters that by applying for an absentee ballot made clear their intention to vote and their desire to have their vote counted - six more than the margin in the race for Governor.
During the Global War on Terrorism, the military voter is a moving target. Assume Sergeant Jones was in Baghdad when he requested his absentee ballot in July 2004, by completing the FPCA and mailing it to his LEO back home. But where was he in October, when the Military Postal Service Agency was trying to find him to deliver his unmarked absentee ballot? Fallujah? Tikrit? Mosul? Kuwait? Fort Bragg, North Carolina? Walter Reed Army Medical Center (Washington, DC)? Any system that depends upon finding Sergeant Jones to deliver a piece of paper, and then returning that same piece of paper to Sergeant Jones' hometown after he has written on it, is doomed to failure a substantial percentage of the time.
The basic problem is that we, as a nation, are still conducting absentee voting essentially as we did during World War II - by shipping pieces of paper around the world by snail mail. Can't we do better than that in the 21st Century? Today, it is possible to transmit a billion dollars by secure electronic means, and major financial transactions are conducted electronically every day. In the military, classified military information is transmitted electronically every day. We should be able to find a way to enable deployed service members to vote electronically with a high degree of confidence that their ballots will count.
Washington's cliffhanger election reminds us all of Florida 2000, when military and overseas absentee ballots literally decided the outcome of the election. Under a 1982 Federal court order that remains in effect, Florida is required to count, for Federal offices (President, Senate, and House), mailed-in absentee ballots from outside the United States (including but not limited to APO and FPO addresses) that arrive one to ten days after the election. On November 17, 2000 (ten days after the election), canvassing boards met at Florida's 67 county courthouses and counted 2,500 ballots that met these criteria. Among those 2,500 ballots, George W. Bush picked up a net gain of 739. In the final count, Bush carried Florida by just 537 votes. Please do the math. But for those 2,500 ballots and the Federal court order that required that they be counted, Al Gore would be President today!
To its credit, Washington has extended the deadline for the receipt of mailed-in ballots by 14 days - to November 16, 2004. Unlike Florida, Washington counts these post-election ballots for all offices, not just Federal offices. But even with these post-election days tacked on Washington does not provide enough ballot transmission time. Because of a late primary (as in Florida), Washington does not have absentee ballots printed and ready to mail until very late. Yakima County reports having ballots printed and ready to mail by October 8. Grays Harbor County reports that it started mailing out ballots during the "week of October 11."
The problem of disenfranchised military absentee voters is not new, and it is not limited to Florida and Washington. Many military personnel have been disenfranchised for as long as they have been permitted to vote at all, since World War II. I invite the reader's attention to the NDC Web site, www.nationaldefensecommittee.org. You can find a 1952 congressional committee report (Subcommittee on Elections, House Administration Committee), showing the disenfranchisement of military personnel fighting in the Korean War.
I invite the reader's attention to a 1952 letter to Congress from President Harry S. Truman, reprinted starting on page 35 of the report. I invite the reader's attention particularly to the President's most eloquent opening paragraph: "About 2,500,000 men and women in the Armed Forces are of voting age at the present time. Many of those in uniform are serving overseas, or in parts of the country distant from their homes. They are unable to return to their States either to register or to vote. Yet these men and women, who are serving their country and in many cases risking their lives, deserve above all others to exercise the right to vote in this election year. At a time when these young people are defending our country and its free institutions, 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."
I submit that President Truman's words are as true today as they were in 1952, and that those words should be addressed to today's legislators and election officials. With their help, America's sons and daughters in our Armed Forces will not have to wait another 52 years to enjoy a basic civil right that the rest of us take for granted.
In the end, everyone must agree our troops vote MUST and WILL count.
I understand that recent polls suggest that 50% plus of voters do not believe that this result is legitimate, even among democrats. There could be a considerable backlash against the dems the next time voters have to go to the polls. The Republicans may be, wisely, taking the long view on this.
WA ping request
The 'rat party machine of King County just stole an election. They urinated on our troops and engaged in massive fraud to elect a corrupt shyster. The Republicans are too, too nice.
When I was in the desert, I received the absentee ballots for everyone from my city, rubber-banded together. There were about 45 of them for soldiers stationed from Kuwait to Mosul. We got them re-sent, but there was no way in heck that the ballots would make it to the soldiers in time to be returned and counted.
As for a chance to vote for the recall of ex-Gov. Davis, I never received the ballots to vote.
It needs a federal investigation. If it were Republicans that did this the msmwould be screaming for one.
.
.."We must always affirm...
...and support...
...our Military Members'...
...Right to Vote,
...for after all...
...they're the ones out there...
...risking their lives...
...for that Right" =
.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer / KNBC Channel 4 TV Interview at our year 2000 'Sore-Loserman/Count the Military Votes' Freep outside the Los Angeles Federal Building.
...This while the Democrats were very busy attempting to steal the entire 2000 Presidential Election in Florida over our Dead Bodies..!!!
Seems, nothing has changed much since..?
.
bump for monday update
The story is up at GoGov.com
What I can't figure out is why a Republican Secretary of State would certify such obviously tainted results. Any explanations?
Because he is a RINO. Also, I wouldn't be surprised to hear he had a skiing trip on his agenda with Christine and Governor Locke.
We the people seem to understand this-- the mere politicians
who benefit most from the power our military forces afford
seem to ignore the military vote -perhaps because the majority of our military who do vote so often vote with the
conservative, and the moral, two attitudes the left seems to wish would wither and die if ignored long enough.
Republican lawyer argued [before the new/lost/forged ballots were allowed] that there would be a contest in any event. Let's just hope that they carry through and actually do so.
PING for later
Amen.
Surprised, anyone?
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This margin could easily have been accounted for by overseas military personnel who tried to vote, but whose ballots were not counted.
military vote **ping**
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