Chicago Tribune
October 11, 2004
Vote drive targets troops overseas - U.S.
tries to make it easier for GIs
By Colin McMahon and Andrew Zajac
BAGHDAD -- Sgt. Marc Moyette doesn't put much stock in politics. Like many
people in his National Guard unit in Baghdad, Moyette is not a voter. But that
may change with this year's presidential election--for Moyette, his buddies and
many other U.S. troops overseas.
With a push from Congress, the Pentagon is going to great lengths to ensure that
U.S. service members can vote this year, wherever they are. And with foreign
policy, the Iraq war and terrorism among the top campaign issues, more fighting
men and women are expected to have their say in who will be commander in chief.
But whether a significant number of military votes will go uncounted, as they
did in Florida in the 2000 election, remains an open question.
That's because despite the Pentagon's effort to inform troops about how to vote,
the military remains hitched to a cumbersome, mostly paper-based system for
voting across the globe.
Plans for all-electronic, Internet-based voting were scrapped earlier this year
because of security concerns, and the Defense Department has scrambled to
assemble a system for expanded balloting by fax and e-mail.
But not all states have signed onto all parts of the plan, leaving a complex
mishmash of electoral regulations, procedures and deadlines outlined in a
379-page voter assistance guide for military personnel.
Eighteen states missed a deadline recommended by the U.S. Election Assistance
Commission to mail overseas absentee ballots at least 45 days before the
election.
The delays result from late primaries, disputes over whether candidate Ralph
Nader should be on the ballot and fights over initiatives such as a same-sex
marriage ban.
That has put even more pressure on military voters to cast ballots quickly to
ensure they arrive in time to be counted.
The Pentagon is urging its 435,000 personnel stationed around the globe to vote
this week if they haven't already done so. If regular ballots haven't arrived in
time, military voters can fill out write-in ballots for federal offices only.
The armed forces do not track turnout, but the supervisor of the voter
registration process in Iraq says all but a few dozen of more than 134,000
troops stationed there have been handed absentee ballot applications.
"We had a goal of 100 percent contact," said Army Capt. Ken DeCelle of
Alameda, Calif. "We got to 99.98 percent."
"People are more confident that their vote will count this time," he
said. "Everybody is so worried about what happened in 2000, that if there
is the smallest hint of something going bad, they squash it immediately."
But whether a soldier mails in a ballot application, receives a ballot, fills it
in correctly and sends it to the right place with a timely postmark is something
beyond DeCelle's control. "We do not take it to the mailbox for them,"
he said.
Ballots make priority mail
Ballots that do make it to the mailbox probably will have a relatively quick
trip home. Within the Military Postal Service Agency, ballots have priority for
overseas shipment, according to Assistant Deputy Director Mark DeDomenic.
"If any mail moves, this stuff will move first," he said.
On the domestic side, the U.S. Postal Service has promised to ship outgoing and
incoming ballots via overnight mail between military overseas shipping stations
in New York, San Francisco and Miami and more than 5,700 local elections boards,
spokesman Jim Quirk said.
Even critics of the armed forces' overseas voting process concede that logistics
have been improved and troops appear better informed about voting.
The Pentagon "has done a better job of getting the materials out to
military personnel at home and abroad," said Samuel Wright of the
non-profit Military Voting Rights Project.
Nonetheless, Wright predicts "a lot of service members are going to be
disenfranchised" because it still takes too long to distribute and collect
ballots.
Indeed, there is a confused quality to the Pentagon's get-out-the-vote effort,
an apparent consequence of the decision earlier this year to kill a $22 million
project for Internet voting.
The cancellation of the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment
because of security concerns sent military planners scrambling to Plan B, an
effort to step up distribution and collection of ballots via fax or e-mail.
As recently as August, military officials were lobbying state election
authorities to accept such ballots. But in many states, that meant changing laws
on ballot privacy and security, and many state officials said the Pentagon's
request came too late.
"That's the kind of thing that should been resolved before the first of the
year," said Kevin Kennedy, director of the Wisconsin State Elections Board.
"I would be very reluctant without legislative authorization to accept a
faxed ballot."
As a result, participation in faxed and e-mail voting is a decidedly mixed bag,
according to Defense Department data.
Fourteen states will not send or accept faxed or e-mailed ballots.
Thirty-two states allow ballots to be transmitted to troops via fax--but only 21
will accept a completed ballot by fax. In Illinois, the Cook County and Chicago
elections boards will fax out ballots but require a postal return. State
elections board Executive Director Dan White said he believes all other
elections authorities in Illinois will use the mail exclusively.
Military voters from Missouri and North Dakota can vote by e-mail. But both
e-mail and fax voting have been clouded by concerns about privacy.
In both cases voters must sign waivers acknowledging a surrender of privacy
rights. That's because ballots are not sealed and do not move directly from
voters to election authorities.
No guarantee vote will count
Once a ballot lands in a local elections office, it's still not guaranteed to be
tallied because states have different deadlines for accepting overseas ballots.
Illinois, for instance, requires a ballot to arrive at its destination by the
close of polls, on Nov. 2. But Ohio counts an overseas ballot if it is
postmarked by the close of polls and is received within 10 days after the
election. Florida tallies overseas votes received until Nov. 10.
The quirks of the military balloting system may be especially significant this
year. The race between President Bush and Sen. John Kerry is close, and the
number of military personnel outside the U.S. is more than double the 200,000
posted overseas in 2000.
Some swing states have high concentrations of military voters abroad who could
make the difference if the race stays close.
Interest in the campaign among service members overseas appears to be high. Lt.
Col. Ellen Krenke, a spokeswoman for the Pentagon's Federal Voting Assistance
Program, said the Pentagon has had to supply extra fax lines at its electronic
depot in Alexandria, Va., which collects overseas ballots.
As of Oct. 4, the Cook County Board of Elections received 2,295 military ballot
applications, 600 more than it received for the 2000 election, said spokesman
Scott Burnham.
What this will mean for the candidates is unclear.
Republicans predict that their traditional advantage among military voters will
hold for a candidate who has declared himself a war president. Democrats see the
casualties and hardships of Iraq turning average enlisted troops, and even some
junior officers, against Bush.
"A lot of guys who don't ever vote are going to vote for Kerry because they
see him as having the biggest resolve to get us out of here," said Moyette,
the National Guardsman.
"If I do vote, I'll vote for Kerry," said Moyette, 29, an X-ray
technician from Riverside, Calif. "If I felt there was a point to our being
here it would be a different story. But I don't see the purpose in it."
Other soldiers and Marines in Iraq want to stick with the current commander in
chief. They fear that Kerry would pull out of Iraq "before the job is
done," as one Bush supporter put it.
- - -
Vote overseas could determine winner here
With 435,000 U.S. troops abroad for this year's presidential election, ballots
from overseas could play a pivotal role in determining how swing states vote. In
2000, 69 percent of U.S. troops abroad voted.
STATES WITH MOST TROOPS ABROAD
1. Texas 44,236
2. California 39,513
3. Florida 34,771
4. New York 21,272
5. Pennsylvania 16,175
6. Illinois 15,756
7. Ohio 14,559
8. North Carolina 13,711
9. Washington 13,074
10. Virginia 12,931
13. Missouri 9,358
24. Wisconsin 5,657
28. Minnesota 4,744
32. Iowa 4,030
37. New Mexico 3,387
Note: Totals as of July 2004
Source: Federal Voting Assistance Program
Chicago Tribune
|