Military Voters, We Want to Hear From You
Men and women in uniform and your families: Please send us your stories about voting difficulties!
There are reports our overseas soldiers have not yet received voting ballots, face voting irregularities, or are encountering obstacles in trying to vote in the field. If you or a family member is finding it difficult to vote in the 2010 elections, we want to hear from you. Submissions can be anonymous or openly identified.
We want to hear if those fighting for our country are being denied the right to cast their vote.
Please send your first-hand reports to bryanp@pjmedia.com.
Several states and jurisdictions have failed this year to mail out absentee ballots to military voters on time. Among them, Westchester County, New York, and New York City.
New York City and Westchester Country are but two of the several New York jurisdictions which admitted that they failed to mail military ballots. This fact should have been known on October 2, when the Justice Department should have marched into court seeking an immediate order that the ballots be sent — preferably by rapid express mail.
Instead, a Justice Department press flack says they are in “urgent discussions.” Great. Congress should ask why they aren’t in urgent “litigation.” New York had already received a waiver, which DOJ supported, allowing the state to mail ballots on October 1. They couldn’t even meet that relaxed deadline.
The state of Illinois has also failed our military voters:
The crack Department of Justice unit set up to protect military voters is beginning to resemble the Keystone Kops operation of 2008. It turns out that after they concluded that all the military ballots in Illinois went out on time, they were wrong.
In fact, ballots in one of the largest counties in the state, St. Clair County, did not go out early enough to comply with federal law. In fact, it is unclear whether or not they have gone out at all.
Yet inside the DOJ, the crack unit made inquiries in Illinois and went away satisfied that all was well, nothing to worry about.
These appalling and ongoing failures may result in the disenfranchisement of active duty and reserve military members and their families. And the Department of Justice has utterly failed to deal with the situation. And it’s not as if states are incapable of making it easier for deployed military families to vote. This year, the state of Texas has done just that on its own initiative:
In accordance with the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act, the state of Texas has adopted new administrative rules that make it easier for military and overseas voters to access the absentee voting process. Included are provisions which allow military service members temporarily residing outside their county of residence, as well as United States citizens residing overseas, to request blank balloting materials to be sent to them by email as well as the establishment of a ballot tracking system allowing military and overseas voters to determine the status of their ballot.
When a voter submits their Federal Post Card Application (FPCA), they may specify that a blank ballot be sent to them via email. Voted ballots must still be returned through regular mail, unless they are sent from a designated war zone and are eligible to be returned by fax.
If you or anyone in your family has been impacted by the failure of your state or local jurisdiction to send out absentee ballots on time, we at PJ Media and PJTV would like to hear from you. Please send us your story.
(thumbnail photo courtesy FreeFoto.com)
My son died this year, but before he did, he pretty much had a lock on west point.
But the question now would be would he have accepted an appointment? Can’t vote. Have to try to keep order & discipline in an openly gay rank and file…
Who would want to serve?
http://www.redstate.com/elronaldo/2010/06/11/we-won-big-now-whip-it-take-a-walk-in-the-sunshine-with-my-departed-son/
I would- much as I loathe the High Command, I feel helpless watching my friends go off to war and being stuck stateside. 19 months ago I received a notice of medical disqualification from the Navy’s Bureau of Medicine.
A feature, not a bug.
Who’re the military likely to vote for? In a tight election, who don’t want them to vote?
Forwarded to my nephew, USMC, deployed overseas.
My son is the voting officer for his base in Afghanistan, an I tell you, he is livid. The only way this election to make any difference is if every family member, including extended family, to make sure they vote. If we can change either or both houses, make damn sure there are hearings and drag that incompetent Holder and his bunch in and do whatever is legally available to make them pay for this and their other liberal atrocities they commited since 2008.
I am not military member, but I am a contractor over here. I have sent my absentee ballot in to the state of Maryland. This was well over a month ago, and I can not get a response. The first time I sent it, I asked the recipient to just respond to me, and tell me I am good to go, and that my ballot would be in the mail. I followed up with several emails, of course to no avail. The same thing happened to me in the 2008 presidential elections. This is a huge election year for Maryland because we may be able to get in republican Bob Ehrlich back in office in this sea of blue.
I am simply out of ideas, and I suppose that I will just miss another election. Voting in and of itself is a cold, bloodless bureaucracy and a lot of people simply get screwed.
You can check the status of your absentee ballot here (http://www.mdelections.org/). For all military and overseas voters, they can track the receipt of their ballot through the Federal Voting Assistance Program website, http://www.FVAP.gov.
I didn’t recieve my ballot this year from Wichita County in Texas. However, I was able to vote on-line through a link provided by my voting officer.
My wife and I voted in 2008 in Virginia Beach and were transferred to Okinawa in July 2010, we failed to notify the Virginia Beach General Registrar of our change in residency, so I had to go to the Federal Voter Assistance website where I was able to print out ballots for my wife and myself. I am disappointed that the Navy did not do a better job of assisting us in finding out about the FVAP after we got here, but like anything else in the military, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. I want to encourage everyone to refer their military family members to fvap.gov and do it soon as the registration and voting deadlines are coming up soon, if you can’t get it done on your own, hunt down your voting officer and make him get things happening. Virginia’s deadline is the 26th of October, so you still have time.
I was a US Army Contractor working in Europe during the 2000 election (I am retired US military). The one that Gore likes to say was stolen. It was stolen, at least my ballot was one of over 1,400 ballots intentionally disenfranchised because it was a military ballot. The disenfranchisement of the military is one of the most henious crimes of the democrat party. They have a long and inglorious history. May they rot in jail.
This is nothing new. My ballot for the election in 1976 arrived at my base in Japan after the election was over. The Vietnam War had already ended.
The Democrats have no interest whatsoever in allowing active duty military members to vote. The law should mandate immediate dismissal and racketeering charges for any election who fails to deliver milityary ballots by the deadline. The penalty upon conviction should mandate prison and loss of any government pension.
Let the games end now.
My husband and I are overseas presently.
My county in Florida is awesome. I signed up for an absentee ballot, they sent me an email telling me of the process. They sent me an email telling me they had sent the ballot. When I received it in late Sep/early Oct, they had directions for sending it via mail and/or via fax. I sent it via USPS and then two weeks later I received an email telling me they had received it. Amazing service. Now let’s hope they count it
My husband, resident of MI, has received nothing so far. But then we aren’t surprised about MI – what a waste of a state right now…
These men and women should get two votes, but they are getting none? This is a complete and unacceptable travesty.
What a travesty! Why aren’t these incompetent bastards, or worse, traitorous criminals intent on fixing elections, in jail and not collecting government pensions. I never once received an absentee ballet when serving in Asia during the Viet Nam War. This criminal practice will never stop until these criminals are prosecuted. Voter fraud does seem to be a democrat party problem or is it just me with the problem with Acorn’s voter fraud, illegal’s and felons voting and military members being robbed of their voting rights. Seems you can die for your country but democrats don’t trust us to drink or vote.
If the President cared for military voters he would fly all the ones who did not get ballots in time home to vote and withhold federal funds from their states to pay for it.
A registered Republican, about six weeks ago and, as ever, following its instructions to the letter, I sent to Los Angeles County’s Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk for my Military and Overseas Voter ballot package.
So far?
Nothing.
A week ago I downloaded, completed and Fedexd my federal (no such provision for the state) house and senate ballots to LA County. Half a vote, I guess, is better than none.
But on about 50% of the occasions I’ve been overseas at election time (and that’s lots – I’m an aeroplane driver) — and thanks entirely to the activist “Democrat” controlled electoral machinery — my vote doesn’t get there on time — or at all. This despite that I scrupulously follow the California Secretary of State’s and the LA County Gang’s instructions.