Posted on 06/22/2002 9:59:55 PM PDT by greydog
WASHINGTON, June 21 (UPI) -- Recall the brouhaha about military absentee ballots in Florida during the contentious aftermath of the 2000 presidential election. However, the disenfranchisement of overseas military personnel is not limited to Florida, and it did not begin in 2000.
Military personnel have often been disenfranchised for as long as they have been permitted to vote at all. The problem is most severe for those personnel who serve at sea or at isolated overseas duty stations, where mail service is slow and intermittent.
Significant progress has been made however. The fiscal year 2002 National Defense Authorization Act contains a whole title—Title XVI—on uniformed services voting—sections 1601-07.
The NDAA was enacted on Dec. 27, 2001. Credit for including these provisions in the NDAA should go to Sen. Wayne Allard, Republican of Colorado.
Section 1601(a) of the NDAA reads as follows: “It is the sense of Congress that each person who is an administrator of a federal, state, or local election -- (1) should be aware of the importance of the ability of each uniformed services voter to exercise the right to vote; and (2) should perform that person’s duties as an election administrator with the intent to ensure that -- (a) each uniformed services voter receives the utmost consideration and cooperation when voting; (b) each valid ballot, cast by such a voter, is duly counted ...” Section 1602 focuses on getting the services to do a better job of appointing, training, and motivating voting assistance officers. This section requires effectiveness and compliance reviews by the Department of Defense inspector general. Section 1602 further provides that appointing qualified voting assistance officers is the responsibility of commanders at all levels.
If a service member has served as a voting assistance officer, his or her performance evaluation must comment on his or her performance. Section 1602 also requires regular assessments of mail delivery from overseas. Improving mail service can help, but the real long-range solution is electronic voting. As we enter the 21st century, most states still conduct absentee voting essentially as they did in the 19th century, by mail. As you can imagine, there are three time-consuming steps in the absentee voting process.
First, the absentee ballot request must travel from the voter to the election official.
Second, the unmarked ballot must travel from the election official to the voter. Finally, the marked ballot must travel from the voter to the election official. Each of these steps can take weeks if “snail mail” must be used, but only seconds if secure electronic means are permitted.
With regard to electronic voting, the Web site of VoteHere, Inc., which is at votehere.net demonstrates that the technology already exists that will enable military personnel and others to cast secure, secret ballots by electronic means. Certainly, this electronic system is far more secure than the postal-based system used for absentee voting today.
Section 1604 requires the Department of Defense to conduct an electronic voting demonstration project in conjunction with the November 2002 general election. The project “shall be carried out with the participation of sufficient numbers of uniformed services voters so that the results are statistically relevant.”
The Department of Defense conducted such a demonstration project in the 2000 presidential election, but fewer than 100 voters participated.
Section 1603 enacts a new section in the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act:
“For the purposes of voting ... a person who is absent from a state in compliance with military or naval orders shall not, solely by reason of that absence: (1) be deemed to have lost a residence or domicile in that state, without regard to whether the person intends to return to that state.”
This new section, now codified at 50 U.S.C. App. 594, effectively overrules Casarez v. Val Verde County, 957 F. Supp. 847, 860 (W.D. Tex. 1997). Without this new protection, the career service member may lose the right to vote anywhere if he or she changes his or her mind about where to live upon retirement.
Section 1606 requires each state to accept a single federal post card application as a simultaneous absentee ballot request for all the federal elections (including primaries) to be held in the state in that calendar year.
Finally, Section 1607 provides that the Secretary of Defense and the secretaries of the military departments “may not ... prohibit the designation or use of a qualifying facility under the jurisdiction of the secretary as an official polling place for local, state, or federal elections.”
This provision can be waived in those instances where local security considerations make it inadvisable to have a polling place in a military facility.
Someone needs to carry the news about these important new provisions to the nation’s 5,000 local election officials.
Election officials need to bend over backwards to ensure that the brave young men and women who serve in our armed forces get the opportunity to vote this year, and to have their ballots counted. After all, were it not for the sacrifices of military personnel, from the American Revolution to “Operation Enduring Freedom,” none of us would have the opportunity to vote in free elections.
Samuel F. Wright is a judge advocate in the Naval Reserve, but these are his personal views. He has recruited more than 2,100 volunteers, mostly military reservists and retirees, working to facilitate military and overseas voting. His e-mail address is samwright50@yahoo.com
In our area we have no polling places and are forced to use absentee ballots. I no longer trust that our absentee ballots will be counted. I would love to vote electronically.
I will never, ever forget the story written by Robert Novak in November during the election fiasco:
"Gore lawyers pumped their fists and threw high-fives everytime another military ballot was disqualified..."
Al Gore forced the use of the "Clinton Justice System" and thought he could bend it to his will as Bill had done even to the point knowing full well the Fl. Supremes had broken their state Constitution and the US Constitution, forcing the US Supremes into the breach. Broken and trashed as it was, Al Gore was and is no match for American Justice.
Never forget his three circles where in the last and third circle he put the American people; he and Joe first; special interest (Jessie Jackson etc.) second and we the people LAST.
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