Protecting Military Voting: A Blue Star Mom Speaks Out
My name is Betty Boren Avery, and I am a Republican precinct chairman (an unpaid elected position).
I will be serving as an election judge this November 2. To do so, I attend the mandatory secretary of state election law training and the required clerical training (every seven months) on how to assemble and disassemble the electronic voting equipment, do the paperwork, etc. Also, I am a volunteer deputy voter registrar and have attended the training on how to complete the voter registration form for the state of Texas for the past several years.
In other words: I am trained and I know what I am doing. I follow the law and swear in my clerks each election to uphold the “purity” of the election.
I am also a Blue Star Mom, with a son currently deployed to Afghanistan with the 101st Airborne. He is a registered voter and deserves the right to vote. He does not have to vote, but he should have the choice to vote and should have a ballot sent to him on time.
I have listened to the Department of Defense describe the military post card procedures. I have also reviewed the website for military voting, and I found and provided the “Registration and Absentee Ballot Request — Federal Post Card Application (FPCA)” form for my son and for other military service members. My son completed the form on one of his visits home from his home post of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, and it was signed and dated with additional information to be completed. The APO address is to be provided later by the soldier or parents.
This form seemed self-explanatory. People do not know their APO address until they are deployed or until just before they are deployed, and this was my son’s first deployment: he is 20 years old.
My experience trying to change his registration to an APO address with the Harris County Voter Registration Department was interesting. I contacted the head of the elections department, and was told that they could not help me — I had to talk to the mail ballot staff. I called them, and the person I spoke to was hesitant — they wanted to talk to my son. I tried to explain that this was not possible, as he had just left for Afghanistan and I had no contact with him.
Bush-era poverty has driven people of color into the military. Any real military vote suppression is due to neocons seeking to prevent people of color from participating in government.
I sure hope that you are kidding, otherwise that is the dumbest thing I have ever heard and completely false. Military vote suppression has zero to do with race and everything to do with preventing a large aconservative block from enjoying their right to vote.
I completely sympathize with the writer because I have no idea if my vote from Iraq was ever counted in FL in 2006. It is a shame that the system is not better for getting the ballots to them and back from the front. It should be an easy thing to do because you have a special mailbag for ballots that moves on the first thing headed back to the real world and it makes it in plenty of time for the election. Now getting the ballots to the individuals would take a little more effort on the military’s part because they know pretty well where everyone is and could special handle the ballots to get them to the individuals if those individuals flagged their deployment with their local post office either on or off base. That would assure that the ballots would be given priority handling to get to the guys in the field.
This would require some assistance from all involved, the state, the Post Office, the military, and of course the individual, but it is possible to acheive. If this country truly values the contribution of each and every soldier, sailor, airman and marine then we as a nation could make this happen realitively quickly. I wonder how much stomach the Democrats in Congress have to give the vote back to the military? I would hope that the next Congress has the stones to make true military voting reform that lets the military exercise it’s right to vote.
too bad more didn’t join the military,
maybe the prisons wouldn’t so full of ‘em
…’EM” being anyone alice is presently talking about, anybody.. esp people like the black panthers.
alice is just here to pull your chain. No rhyme, no reason.
troll.
too bad more didn’t join the military,
… there would be more space in the prisons alice.
Yeah – I remember serving way back in the Clinton days when we didn’t have coloreds in the military.
Then came the Bush Presidency and the crushing 4.5% unemployment – we really got a lot of poor kids enlisting then. Now that Bush is gone and we are prosperous again, I assume we will be back to an all-white Army as soon as their enlistments are up and the job offers come rolling in.
Yea; I served under Kennedy and Johnson. We kept hearing about the ‘black soldiers’, but since we never saw any, figured they were an elite covert group. Today they’re called ‘Black Panthers’. And they bad!
Yeah – I remember serving way back in the Clinton days when we didn’t have coloreds in the military.
I know what you mean. I was in from ’86-’89, and apart from Basic, AIT, my permanent duty station, and TDY, I never saw any African-Americans, Hispanics, or persons of Asian descent in uniform. And even then, it was only officers, NCOs, and lower enlisted… the 2 or 3 Warrant Officers I encountered while in the Army were ALL white!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
But seriously, where do these people come from? Some of these statements (Alice) are so far out in lala land that it’s hard to figure out how their statements made it to the light of day.
It must be the Ambien they’re using due to lack of sleep thinking about what’s coming November 2… Ambien can cause a person to have strange thoughts.
I need to ask my 3 military sons if they have had conversations with anyone “of color” claiming they enlisted do to “Bush poverty”.
HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Sorry, I just can’t help myself lately… this crap is just too deep.
For the ten years I served on active duty, nine of those years I never received an absentee ballot any sooner than the day AFTER the election. The only reason I got to vote in the 10th year was because I changed my home of record to where I was living at the time and registered in the local community.
Voting boards have never made sending absentee ballots to the military a priority in my experience.
Gibbsy boy, you so funny! Don’t you have some press conference to make jokes for?
Alice come on be real! I served under seven presidents and had the pleasure of serving with many people of color. It is true there was an increase in the number of colored peoples in later years after the all volunteer military began but this wasn’t due to any president specifically. The military offered benefits and a chance to get ahead. The last president I served under was Clinton. When I was in, I spent a majority of my time overseas and voted absentee every time, I always had my ballots and returned them in time to get counted. If they were not counted it was not a fault of the mail but of the people counting the ballots.
If you’re from that era, you remember that judges would give criminals a choice; Jail or the military;
What do you think they chose?
Go away, troll.
Our son is also a Marine – deploying in January. He’ll be able to vote next week where he is currently stationed, but we’ve already considered his options if he is deployed in 2012: one of us will complete his absentee ballot following his instructions and mail it on time. Fraud? Probably so, but our son has seen his father trust me with signing his signatures most of his life and figures we can be relied on to execute his ballot as he directs. (Lots of pronouns there but I think you get the picture.) When he marries, his wife will do the same. Our boy will vote, until the DoD protects his franchise.
I have to say, it really does depend on your local voting district on whether or not you get your absentee ballot. Orange County, FL did a reasonably good job of getting my ballots to me in a timely manner, but that was probably due to the fact that they had a huge military presence on their roles.
I said if before, if the Congress was truly interested in allowing the military to take part in the democratic process that they defend with their lives, then they could very easily make it happen. It would only take special handling of the ballots or arrange for voting over the internet, with priority given at military bases overseas for voters or dedicating a computer at a command for just that function. There are many ways to get the job done, but it requires the will of the ruling classes to return the vote to the military.
The military is capable of getting their orders and all other paperwork to the troops, and in a specified time frame.
I cannot see why the military could not provide absentee ballots to all the troops for every national election. And they could transport the ballots back to the States to be disbursed to their respective precincts.
And with the secure internet connections the military has, they could handle voting electronically.
Hard to believe that this Nation has problems like these; We look pretty bad for the Republic we’re supposed to be.
Agreed w/Cybergeezer – there is no reason we can’t trust the military’s network security to handle simple electronic voting, even if it’s just marking PDFs and emailing them back (with a copy retained for the MM).
We’re military, but my husband is not deployed; even so, he votes absentee in Indiana and has for years. It’s a pain in the *** even for non-deployed members – I can imagine what it must be like at a FOB or in a submarine. If they can go out there and risk death for us, though, there is no reason we can’t take care of this one little thing for them. A federal government that actually made this a priority could make it happen within weeks. And I don’t know about you, but this is one thing I wouldn’t mind spending a little more taxpayer money on.
All you need to know is that the Democtrats do everything they can to restrict the military vote from being counted, while they pull every string they can to allow convicts and illegal aliens to vote. Now remind me— Who loves this country and respects the men and women in uniform?
You don’t think the Dems actually care, do you?
We are ,, Not ,, TEA-ckn ,, any more ,, B-Ho’s Scheet ! WE will CHANGE this .
The Dems will most assuredly cheat like they done the past three elections. I hope my vote won’t be one of the thousands cast for Rossi, suddenly “never received.” Washington state is one of the dirtiest and most corrupt of all voting systems. It’s truly frightening and makes me enraged after losing two recounts they suddenly find all these boxes of ballots missed during the original count. Of course, the liberal, radically liberal State Supreme Court, allowed them to add them in. We Washington voters don’t have a chance. I really hate mail in ballots………too much room for fraud that always appears its ugly head after the votes have been counted.
Art of War and Warfare:
I received an email from a conservative friend of mine who lives in the People’s Republic of California and he was discussing the current administration and their bungling diplomacies, etc. and discussing chess as a game to plan war strategies, etc. I responded to my good friend with the following and entitled it the Art Of Warfare:
Exactly Doc–First of all, if you find it necessary to go to war, you then have to have as your goal, winning the war. Then, you make a plan. Then, you implement your plan. If your plan is not working, regroup and figure out why said plan did not work, and then make necessary adjustments to said plan, and act on it. And like in any planning, only scrap what does not work, keep what was working well, and then get on with the plan until your goal is achieved. If your original assessment was that war was not only the right thing to do and thus necessary, then you owe it to the cause of good and to your soldiers and to your citizens and allies to achieve the goal of defeating the enemy you found it necessary to go to war with to begin with. And, to date, in history, no wars that involved the forces of perceived good and evil, has the war been won with words and diplomacy. Diplomacy comes after you have defeated your enemy and you let the enemy know what his future rules of civility are going to be if you have any vested interest and right to be involved with his country to begin with. And, if what you are telling the enemy what his rules of civility are going to be, you have to be sure that what those rules are, are acceptable to what the majority of the citizens of said nation want. And, if you do not have the people on your side, maybe you should not be there to begin with, unless the only way to keep the nation from being an aggressor is to occupy them and keep them in check. And, with a place like the middle east where you have Muslim Regimes, who have 20th and 21st century technologies and 10th century BC mentalities, you either have to take away their technologies or capabilities of using said technologies when it comes to warfare technologies. Or, if you are not willing to do this, then you must make sure that you keep their leaders in Check to insure that they will never use those technologies against their neighbors or against any other non-aggressor nation. If the war in Iraq was necessary, then it is our responsibility now to stay in the area long enough to finish the job in the region and that may require the permanent occupation of Iraq with permanent bases to keep the Iranians and other hostiles in perpetual Check Mate. In the meantime, if part of our reason for being there is OIL because we need it, then we need to lessen the need for their oil by extracting and using our own oil which, according to our own geologists, we have plenty of it. And, as a nation, we cannot allow a group of enviro-whack jobs who have their own personalized goals and beliefs and agendas to keep us from extracting our own energy resources wherever those resources are located. And, also, when the enviro-whack jobs are endangering national security, these whack jobs need to be investigated and see which of our other enemies are they either knowingly or unknowingly colluding with. The Liberal Mindset in this country at the highest levels of power is the greatest national security threat this nation faces. And, many of them are knowingly colluding with our enemies, while, I am sure that most of them are just unknowing and ignorant pawns who go along to get along for their own selfish needs for power and approval of the powers that be. Looking at the makeup of our congress, I have never seen such an amassed group of fools and incompetents, who are able to wield so much power with an unlimited Checking Account. The current makeup of our leadership in this country is the biggest assortment of fools, lunatics, incompetents, criminals, subversives, perverts and enemy spies that I have ever witnessed. You could not plan and implement a More Perfect Storm for Disaster than what we have assembled in our government today. And, if we do not recognize this current congress and president for what and who they are, and remove them at the ballot box, and then begin to Down Size their Powers and the Abilities for them to Make another Mess of the sort they have already created, our days as a free an sovereign people living in a free and sovereign nation are numbered. This current government and it’s leadership are in bed with our enemies and in some cases, our enemies are already in positions of power in our government. The downsizing of government is absolutely necessary, and by downsizing, I mean the elimination of some of the major Agencies, Bureaus, Commissions, and Departments that do no good at all and in fact, are doing great harm to our country. And, along with these Major Unconstitutional ABCD’s of Bureaucracy, you eliminate the thousands of Tentacles of these major Bureaucracies that are spread out all over the nation like a massive root ball in a potted plant when the plant outgrows the pot. The major war we now face as a nation is the war at home. And, the citizenry of this nation have to be awakened and educated to the fact that our current government is beyond incompetent, they are criminally and suicidally incompetent. And, if we do not Win The War at home, we will continue to play into the hands of our enemies, and we will deliver the weapons and tools that our enemies will take and then destroy us and our allies with. This is the case in the middle east now. Iran is still using technologies that we gave them. The Iran we have today is the creation of Feel Good Incompetents in this government, both present and past. You can go back to Jimmy Carter, who was another incompetent warm and fuzzy president who had drank the communist kool-aid, and see how his policies put the Islamic Lunatics in power who toppled the Shah who was the head of an elected and civilized society. And, you can mark Jimmy Carter’s Presidency as the Beginning of this Islamic Terrorist War that we are still fighting today. Today, we can win the war at home with words that educate and awaken The Masses of Americans who are ignorant and are kept that way by our MSM, Hollywood, Politicians and the Public Schools. We have to end the Official Brainwashing, Lying and Propaganda Campaigns that have been waged on this country by our very so-called leaders, and tell folks what is really going on. It is my firm belief as an educator, that people make much better decisions when they are armed with the truth and good information. Mostly what the citizens of our country are being fed today are Lies, Propaganda, and Dis-Information, and it is my belief that the majority of these Lies, Propaganda and Dis-Information is being disseminated purposely by Our Leaders and the MSM and Hollywood is providing the Megaphone to Broadcast these Lies, Propaganda and Dis-Information. And, the majority of the citizens, are merely pawns who have Bought The Lies and believe the lies to be truths, and therefore are making daily decisions based on what they believe to be facts, when in fact, they have been lied to deliberately and dumbed down deliberately by the powers that be. The Liberal Democrats and other Nefarious Enemies of our Freedoms know the level of ignorance and illiteracy that exists in the USA today, because they have purposely engineered this dumbing down and brainwashing campaign over the past 4 decades, and they Prey On This Ignorance, thus the Election of the Likes of Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Barney Frank, Al Cee Hastings, John Lewis, Barbara Boxer, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden and the rest of the Capitol Hill Gang of thugs, thieves, subversives, perverts, communists and other assorted misfits, criminals, and deadbeats. And, many of them are also Lawyers, who through the writing of laws that only lawyers can understand, are perpetuating the incompetency at the highest levels of government as they perpetuate their own legalistic and litigious culture. What America Needs to Hear is Common Sense spoken In Language that anybody can understand, and what Americans need is Good, Honest and Factual Information. Armed with Good Information, Most Americans, in spite of the decades of dumbing down and brainwashing, will make better decisions. The Only Way to Defeat Our Current Government is to Expose This Government and The Criminals and Incompetents that are perpetuating it. And, you do this by Telling The Public The Truth. Americans Can Handle The Truth if give an opportunity to See and Hear the Truth. It is not that most Americans believe the lies they are being told today, it is just that most Americans today, do not trust what anybody says as they have become cynical and believe that They All Lie, so what’s the difference???? Well, the difference is this: We now have a Marxist President who was Elected By An Illiterate Populace who Believed His Lies and Who Voted in a Politically Correct Way as opposed to Having An Incompetent President if we had elected John McCain. But, the difference is that John McCain’s patriotism and love of this nation cannot be questioned, whereas Mr. Obama’s love of this country can be questioned, and should be questioned based on his past and present words and deeds. Some say that in elections, you only select the lesser of 2 evils, but what you wind up with is still Evil. But, I can assure you that given the difference in evils of Obama and McCain, I will pick McCain’s Mamby Pamby Incompetence anyday of the week over Obama’s Direct Subversion and Hatred of the U.S.A. and our standing in the nation, which he seems to be determined to tear down. Thanks–Have a good day. Jerome
I’m not in the military and it’s one week from election day and I’ve called several times to the number in the voting web site for LA County and still have not received my sample ballots. So I can imagine how bad it is for military families. Seems odd that as a registered republican I haven’t received my voter information in LA County. They assure me I’m registered and I certainly voted in the last election. Perhaps they don’t want me to vote… Or maybe someone else has received my ballots and will try to vote as me? I’m going to the pols before they open and make sure I’m the one who votes my ballot. Bringing my video camera too and if anyone else tries to vote or tries to intimidate me into either not voting or voting the way they want I’ll beat the crap out of them with my cane.
local governments that fail to uphold the military vote (and seem to be going out of their way to silence the military vote) should have all funding suspended, and vote results deemed null and void until military ballots are accounted for.
Amazing. I served as an election official and people bent over backwards to same-day register college students. Certainly the same energy, effort and courtesy can be applied to enfranchising our service men and women.
I too had the same problem with getting absentee ballots to my son while he was in Iraq. Certain people don’t want the military to vote because it goes against the progressive agenda. There has to be a better way.
College students sit on their butts to be indoctrinated all day long.
Soldiers and others put their lives on the line to defend the vote. If anyone should be able to vote it is these men and women. Before anyone else. Period.
If they were trying to bolster Democrat turnout by suppressing military votes it didn’t work – the Dems got their hats handed to them, as I recall…