The Soldier Voting Scandal
Real Clear Politics
July 24, 2008
By Robert Novak
Rep. Roy Blunt, the House Republican whip, on July 8 introduced a resolution demanding that the Defense Department better enable U.S. military personnel overseas to vote in the November elections. That act was followed by silence. Democrats normally leap on an opportunity to find fault with the Bush Pentagon. But not a single Democrat joined Blunt as a co-sponsor, and an all-Republican proposal cannot pass in the Democratic-controlled House.
Analysis by the federal Election Assistance Commission, rejecting inflated Defense Department voting claims, estimated overseas and absentee military voting for the 2006 midterm elections at a disgracefully low 5.5 percent. The quality of voting statistics is so poor that there is no way to tell how many of the slightly over 330,000 votes actually were sent in by the absentee military voters and their dependents and how many by civilian Americans living abroad — 6 million all total.
Nobody who has studied the question objectively sees any improvement since 2006, and that is a scandal. Retired U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Charles Henry wrote in the July issue of the U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings: “While virtually everyone involved … seems to agree that military people deserve at least equal opportunity when it comes to having their votes counted, indications are that in November 2008, many thousands of service members who try to vote will do so in vain.” Henry, now an independent broadcast journalist, has personal experience with this enduring scandal. While serving as a Marine at sea off Iran, he received his 1980 presidential ballot too late to count. President Harry Truman said of troops fighting in Korea, “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.” But the U.S. military that has so perfected the art of war over the past half-century is at a loss to enable soldiers to vote.
A combat officer has enough to do without handling the votes of troopers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. A Defense Department Inspector General’s report in March last year recommended “appointment of civilian personnel” as “voting assistance officers.” The Pentagon brass rejected the idea. I reported four years ago that the problems of 2000 overseas military voting had not been corrected for the 2004 presidential election. At that time, Under Secretary of Defense David Chu was put in charge of the problem. During massive turnover at the Pentagon, Chu remains in place — best known among critics of the military vote problem for his chronic failure to return telephone calls.
Congressional attention to the problem has been scattered and limited mostly to Republicans such as Sen. John Cornyn, who earlier this year decried “a lack of will” at the Pentagon to solve the voting problem. Democratic interest about tackling the problem might be tempered by apprehension that soldiers will cast too many Republican votes. Nevertheless, at least one prominent Democrat — House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer — described himself to me as eager to deal with this problem. (Hoyer’s home state of Maryland is one of the worst offenders, with ballots of only 4.1 percent of overseas voters counted in 2006.) Hoyer and Blunt, who have become friendly adversaries in a bitterly partisan Congress, conferred several weeks ago and agreed in principle on co-sponsoring a resolution aimed at getting the Defense Department moving.
Hoyer wanted the resolution to cover expatriate Americans as well as the military, and Blunt did not object. They turned the issue over to their staffers and went about the business of major legislation. Blunt had instructed his staff to seek agreement with Democrats but, if not, to introduce a resolution applying only to the military, which was the outcome. One presidential staffer who is familiar with the situation privately dismisses the Pentagon bureaucrats as “hopeless.” In a lame-duck administration counting the days before a troubled eight years finally end, American fighting men and women in Iraq and Afghanistan deprived of their right to vote constitute the least of White House worries.
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any other group and the dems would be up in arms.
July 24th, 2008 at 11:10 amfucking hypocrites
I guess it only counts for something when Democratic votes are taken away, majority of military are going to vote Republican. You can bet your ass that if the Military voted largely democratic you would hear screaming till the rafters would fall down at the capital about how something needs to be done.
July 24th, 2008 at 11:14 amTrue if it were the polar bears not getting to vote they’d be blaming it on Bush and immediately calling for polar bear voting rights. Fucking Dems. At least they know that most of the military won’t vote the way they want….and they want to keep them from voting.
July 24th, 2008 at 11:16 amdamn, I just wrote about the dems fucking our troops on the vote in the dallas cowboy cheerleader post.
I was joking, sort of.
July 24th, 2008 at 11:16 amThis is the ultimate insult. They know what your vote will be and they do it every time.
Murtha attacks and is a liar, Harry Reid attacks and is a liar, Durbin attacks and he is a liar, etc, etc, etc,
Who do you think gave the order to the media to say out of Iraq and not report your victory.
Same people, those traitorous Democrats.
July 24th, 2008 at 11:21 amAs a Sqrunt with 3 tours in the last 5 years, IMO it is appathy of the individual more so then the system itself. I can only speak based on my experience with the Navy and Marine Corps, which is that each command has a voting assistance officer that is pretty aggressive in educating and notifying personnel of their rights and options. It seems more of a lack of effort on the part of the individual to exercise their rights then a lack of opportunity. Again just my opinion based off my experiences voting while Overseas.
Of course the Dem’s are quiet on this issue, especially after Gore tried to block the absentee military vote in flordia for the 2000 election.
July 24th, 2008 at 11:32 amWhere is the MSM???
All Dhimms can smoke a turd in hell for all I care.
July 24th, 2008 at 12:19 pmThe Dems love having Muslim backed voter registration drives where most of the registrants are disqualified due fake info, but hate it when the military votes. This must mean that the guys “in the shit” are not allowed a voice!
July 24th, 2008 at 12:52 pmIf the minority Republicans can push Reid and Pelosi(if this works)then push them into a corner to get any legislation passed to make sure before any vote is cast on US soil that all military votes are counted.
Senate Republicans have threatened to block nearly all other bills pending before the August recess if Democrats refuse to vote with them on expanding offshore drilling.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said bills that do not pertain to energy can wait until after the August recess, with gas prices now surpassing $4 per gallon. McConnell and top Republicans indicated Wednesday they would oppose any procedural votes to take up other legislation, which require 60 votes to succeed. …
July 24th, 2008 at 1:04 pmi think on either side it is lip service. with roughly 3m active and reservist in the US today, politicians are going to spend more time w/illegals, larger market for them to peddle to.
most military guys i know are very self motivated, just want a politician wants.
July 24th, 2008 at 2:07 pm