Rear Admiral [Ret.] Jim Carey is Chairman of the NATIONAL DEFENSE COMMITTEE and NATIONAL DEFENSE PAC. His background includes duty in cruisers and amphibs, at Naval Beach Group, and in the Pentagon, and naval service from Seaman Recruit to Rear Admiral. He also served in the Reagan and George Bush Sr. Administrations. Further details at The National Defense Committee and The National Defense Political Action Committee.
Discussion
Board
Have an opinion on this article? Sound off. Legislative
Center - Read about the latest bills
affecting servicemembers and veterans, and
write directly to your Congressman.
Is that the message we're sending to our men and women deployed in
the Armed Forces all around the world -- that their vote doesn't count
because we're using a system today that depends upon getting a paper
ballot in the mail to some G.I. or Sailor deployed overseas the same
way we did it 50 + years ago?
It sure looks that way to me if one just looks at some of the facts.
In 1952 -- that's right, over a half century ago -- then-President
Harry S. Truman, who had served as a deployed Army Officer in
World War I, had suspicions that the military absentee voting
system which he'd seen firsthand didn't work when he was in uniform
and still depended upon ballots being sent through the mail "still
wasn't working," so he asked the Congress to hold hearings to
get to the facts. Truman felt strongly that those being sent to
foreign shores to fight America's battles and possibly lose their
lives surely deserved the right to have their vote counted for
or against the very national leaders who had sent them there.
It turns out that Truman was right, verified by the 1952 Senate
Hearings that documented that ballots couldn't be printed until
the primaries were over and the candidates determined and then,
with a 45 day or 30 day lead time, just couldn't get to the sailor
at sea or the soldier in the field in time to be marked and witnessed
and sealed and then somehow gotten to a post office to be mailed
in time to get back to the County Election Clerk by the deadline
so it could AND WOULD be counted.
Guess what? Not much has changed. In this era of the 21st Century
where trillions of dollars change hands throughout the world by
electronic transmission, are we using that technology to ensure
our sons and daughters deployed overseas get to vote for our national
leaders? NOPE!! We're still using the same system we used in World
War I and 1952 to mail paper ballots all over the world. The Congress
knows this is an inefficient system that often doesn't work, and
allocated $22 million to test electronic military absentee voting
in this years elections. GREAT, you say -- somebody finally cares
about our troops and since they all have e-mail to stay in touch
with their families, NOW they'll be able to vote as well, RIGHT?
BZZZZZZZTTTTTT. Sorry, wrong answer. Based on a minority report
[4 out of 10] of a computer advisory panel on the electronic voting
test which expressed concerns about the testing, the test was
canceled. A new and unique voting system is hereby instituted
-- with 40% of the advisory panel voting NO, "the motion passes"?
Hmmmm. Now there's a unique approach. Perhaps we need another
Congressional Hearing to look into this new voting system where
the side with the least votes wins?
If the opinion of 4 out of 10 panelists cancels
the test of military absentee voting, then how does the use of modern
technology ever get tested? And if it's never tested, then it can't
ever be proven workable, and thus can't be fielded, right? So the
same problems that the deployed troops had in voting in World War
I and in 1952 will still exist in 2004, right? Unfortunately, the
answer to all of these questions is "RIGHT". The problem is that the
results of this approach are ALL WRONG. The focus rightly needs to
be on absolutely, positively ensuring that the voting rights of America's
armed forces are guaranteed the same as they are for somebody who
lives one block from their polling booth. The focus needs to be NOT
on stopping the use of electronic voting technology and NOT on canceling
the tests to prove or disprove it's feasibility, but rather on WHAT
WILL WORK to ensure our military personnel ALL get to vote and that
their votes WILL BE COUNTED.
Where's the outrage against a system
that by it's very structure makes it certain that some of our troops
don't get to vote---- didn't in World War I, didn't in 1952, and still
don't. Don't believe me? Then tell me how you get a paper ballot to
a deployed nuclear submarine at sea that is at sea before the ballot
is mailed and doesn't return until after the election is over and
all the votes are counted? Surely these sailors deserve to have their
vote counted as much as any other American----- perhaps even more,
since they have their lives on the line protecting those of us safely
at home? If ever there were "first among equals" in voting in America,
it seems to me that our sons and daughters sent to defend us deserve
to have their Constitutional rights enforced? Surely if we can transmit
trillions of dollars electronically and can transmit TOP SECRET messages
electronically, surely then we can transmit a warriors vote?
So c'mon America, lets make this work. C'mon Congress, get serious
on this and hold hearings and let's get to the bottom of why a report
of 4 out of 10 "carries the day". If we must, let's look at how we
electronically transmit trillions of dollars all around the world
and use that same knowledge and technology to transmit military votes.
Lets look at how we electronically transmit secure TOP SECRET messages
all around the world and lets use that same knowledge and technology
to transmit military votes so our troops don't lose their right to
vote because the mail didn't catch up to them. Let's listen to what
the Senate had to say in 1952 and look at the facts and the technology
available today, and lets use that knowledge to ensure 100% of our
men and women that want to vote GET THE OPPORTUNITY TO VOTE, and that
they can feel certain that, in return for them risking their lives
for us, their vote will be counted.
Surely we can do that for our own sons and daughters, can't we? Surely
if we can ask them to die for us, we can use 21st Century technology
to let them participate in choosing who leads our nation and our Congress
and our States and Counties and Cities?
Surely there is no one among us who wants to continue with a broken
system when the technology is there to fix it? I, for one, do not
want to be the one to say "Sorry G.I., your vote doesn't count."
