"The personnel that fight our wars, the people who are most affected by the decisions on the use of the military, are being systematically denied the right to vote," said Bob Carey, a board member of the Overseas Vote Foundation, a voting rights group.
Carey, a Navy reservist who has served in Iraq, noted that ballots are often not prepared and ready to be mailed until 30 to 45 days before an election. And since it can take more than two weeks for troops to get ballots by regular mail, they sometimes get them too late to meet voting deadlines.
Poster's comments:
We in the military often take a hard line on our own shortcomings. We don't vote, it's our fault, no whining allowed!
The fact is, the responsibility to vote - and get our junior personnel to vote - is ours alone, and pushing for more electronic voting is how we should be doing it. Electronic voting is not only faster, it allows for instant correction of mistakes so that the ballots are actually counted. During the Florida elections in 2000, thousands of military votes were denied because of improperly filled in forms. Whose fault is that? Ours. How do we fix it? We insist on being able to vote electronically.
Jason
4/27/2008 6:53:00 AM