thedrifter
09-03-04, 06:31 AM
09-02-2004
From the Editor:
For the Troops and Families Overseas, Time to Vote
By Ed Offley
The dust hasn’t settled from the Republican National Convention, and the traditional Labor Day presidential campaign kickoff is still ahead, but for thousands of G.I. Joes and Janes serving far afield, the 2004 presidential election is already up close and in your face.
Four years after the multiple-recount, hanging-chad presidential election voting debacle in Florida, officials from both the Defense Department and state elections offices say they have made improvements in the way military absentee ballots are delivered and counted.
But since the Pentagon earlier this year was forced to cancel a pioneering internet-based voting system for the troops overseas because of security concerns, deployed troops and military family members living overseas will still have to rely on the same patchquilt of individual state election laws and procedures to ensure that their votes arrive at the balloting office in time. And the vast majority of absentee ballots will crawl from Army OPs in Iraq and SF hidey-holes in Afghanistan via military snail mail.
Bottom line: DoD officials say military absentee voters should try and meet a Sept. 11 deadline for registering to vote – that’s nine days from now – and cast their ballots by mail no later than Oct. 15, to ensure that they arrive at local election offices stateside before the Nov. 2, 2004 election.
Two glitches that plagued military absentee ballots in 2000 (and prior elections) were the frequent lack of a postmark by forward-deployed military mail clerks, and the inevitable delays in delivering mail from remote sites back to the U.S. Postal Service collection station for military mail in New York. (A third plague – the Gore campaign’s deliberate assault on all absentee votes in Florida to forestall what Democrats feared would be a heavy pro-Republican turnout among military voters – is not likely to reoccur after the embarrassing publicity when the tactic was publicly revealed.)
In fairness, Pentagon officials have made a number of changes since 2000 that should expedite the flow of absentee ballots from deployed military personnel. They include:
* Information campaign: From banners prominently displayed on bases, spot information notices airing on the Pentagon's internal satellite-television channel and trailers attached to movies shown on military bases, DoD is making an earnest effort to get the word out to the troops.
* Civics courses: Defense Department schools across the globe have added voting to their civics course curricula.
* Expanded voting-assistance officers: There are now voting-assistance officers for about every 30 soldiers, officials say.
* Mandatory postmarks: Unlike past years, where many smaller military units dispatched mail without postmarks (including absentee ballots), military postal workers this year have been ordered to hand-cancel every ballot that is sent out to show clearly when it was mailed.
* Faster postal channels: Charles Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, said last month that DoD and the Postal Service have established a dedicated, separate mailing pipeline for getting absentee ballots to the troops, and returning them to local elections offices in time to be counted.
Military absentee ballots will be separated from the regular mail flow and sent both ways — to the soldier, and back to be counted — faster than the normal military mail. Abell tole National Review Online last month that the Postal Service has agreed to pick up ballots directly from the local precincts and ballot offices, separate them into special containers, and send them by Priority Mail to the absentee military members. Return mail will work the same way, he said.
Here are ten useful tips from the Federal Voting Assistance Program website for military personnel and their family members abroad for ensuring an effective vote in 2004:
1. Start by contacting your Unit/Embassy/Organization Voting Assistance Officer for help in absentee registration and voting.
2. Visit the Federal Voting Assistance Program’s website at http://www.fvap.gov/ for information on the absentee registration and voting process. (Note that several dozen states have created either fax or email voting procedures for military absentee voters.)
3. Ensure that you have applied for your absentee ballot using the hard copy or on-line versions of the FPCA.
4. Make sure your local election official has your current mailing address.
5. Sign and date all election materials.
6. Fulfill your state’s witness/notary requirements (if required).
7. Ensure that your ballot or FPCA is postmarked.
8. Register to vote and request your ballot in a timely manner – not later than September.
9. VOTE – mail your ballot not later than October 15, 2004.
10. Use the Federal Write In Absentee Ballot if you are overseas and your State absentee ballot does not arrive in time to be mailed back by the state’s deadline.
Political analysts looking back at 2000 and reading the murky tea leaves of an equally close presidential election this year are unanimous on one key point: Every vote this year will count. But to do so, it must be counted. And for the troops and their families overseas, the election season is already in final countdown.
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com. © 2004 Ed Offley.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=FTE.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=50&rnd=62.01851428219618
Ellie
From the Editor:
For the Troops and Families Overseas, Time to Vote
By Ed Offley
The dust hasn’t settled from the Republican National Convention, and the traditional Labor Day presidential campaign kickoff is still ahead, but for thousands of G.I. Joes and Janes serving far afield, the 2004 presidential election is already up close and in your face.
Four years after the multiple-recount, hanging-chad presidential election voting debacle in Florida, officials from both the Defense Department and state elections offices say they have made improvements in the way military absentee ballots are delivered and counted.
But since the Pentagon earlier this year was forced to cancel a pioneering internet-based voting system for the troops overseas because of security concerns, deployed troops and military family members living overseas will still have to rely on the same patchquilt of individual state election laws and procedures to ensure that their votes arrive at the balloting office in time. And the vast majority of absentee ballots will crawl from Army OPs in Iraq and SF hidey-holes in Afghanistan via military snail mail.
Bottom line: DoD officials say military absentee voters should try and meet a Sept. 11 deadline for registering to vote – that’s nine days from now – and cast their ballots by mail no later than Oct. 15, to ensure that they arrive at local election offices stateside before the Nov. 2, 2004 election.
Two glitches that plagued military absentee ballots in 2000 (and prior elections) were the frequent lack of a postmark by forward-deployed military mail clerks, and the inevitable delays in delivering mail from remote sites back to the U.S. Postal Service collection station for military mail in New York. (A third plague – the Gore campaign’s deliberate assault on all absentee votes in Florida to forestall what Democrats feared would be a heavy pro-Republican turnout among military voters – is not likely to reoccur after the embarrassing publicity when the tactic was publicly revealed.)
In fairness, Pentagon officials have made a number of changes since 2000 that should expedite the flow of absentee ballots from deployed military personnel. They include:
* Information campaign: From banners prominently displayed on bases, spot information notices airing on the Pentagon's internal satellite-television channel and trailers attached to movies shown on military bases, DoD is making an earnest effort to get the word out to the troops.
* Civics courses: Defense Department schools across the globe have added voting to their civics course curricula.
* Expanded voting-assistance officers: There are now voting-assistance officers for about every 30 soldiers, officials say.
* Mandatory postmarks: Unlike past years, where many smaller military units dispatched mail without postmarks (including absentee ballots), military postal workers this year have been ordered to hand-cancel every ballot that is sent out to show clearly when it was mailed.
* Faster postal channels: Charles Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, said last month that DoD and the Postal Service have established a dedicated, separate mailing pipeline for getting absentee ballots to the troops, and returning them to local elections offices in time to be counted.
Military absentee ballots will be separated from the regular mail flow and sent both ways — to the soldier, and back to be counted — faster than the normal military mail. Abell tole National Review Online last month that the Postal Service has agreed to pick up ballots directly from the local precincts and ballot offices, separate them into special containers, and send them by Priority Mail to the absentee military members. Return mail will work the same way, he said.
Here are ten useful tips from the Federal Voting Assistance Program website for military personnel and their family members abroad for ensuring an effective vote in 2004:
1. Start by contacting your Unit/Embassy/Organization Voting Assistance Officer for help in absentee registration and voting.
2. Visit the Federal Voting Assistance Program’s website at http://www.fvap.gov/ for information on the absentee registration and voting process. (Note that several dozen states have created either fax or email voting procedures for military absentee voters.)
3. Ensure that you have applied for your absentee ballot using the hard copy or on-line versions of the FPCA.
4. Make sure your local election official has your current mailing address.
5. Sign and date all election materials.
6. Fulfill your state’s witness/notary requirements (if required).
7. Ensure that your ballot or FPCA is postmarked.
8. Register to vote and request your ballot in a timely manner – not later than September.
9. VOTE – mail your ballot not later than October 15, 2004.
10. Use the Federal Write In Absentee Ballot if you are overseas and your State absentee ballot does not arrive in time to be mailed back by the state’s deadline.
Political analysts looking back at 2000 and reading the murky tea leaves of an equally close presidential election this year are unanimous on one key point: Every vote this year will count. But to do so, it must be counted. And for the troops and their families overseas, the election season is already in final countdown.
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com. © 2004 Ed Offley.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=FTE.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=50&rnd=62.01851428219618
Ellie