Submarine crews “at sea” STILL don’t get to vote: With absentee ballots being paper documents transmitted through the U. S. Mail, how does a Navy submariner who gets underway 60 days before election day get his military absentee ballot at sea, to say nothing of how does he return it to cast his vote? Last we checked, there are no post offices “under water.” Go to the NATIONAL DEFENSE COMMITTEE website at www.nationaldefensecommittee.org and click on “1952 House Administration Committee, etc., etc.” It’s second from the top, and YES, there is an Executive Summary included -- and a U. S. Congress House Administration Hearing report from that era (you know, back when Harry Truman was President of the USA and the Navy airplanes were fueled by coal?). Military absentee ballots, even back then 52 years ago, were paper documents transported by the U. S. Postal Service -- and it was a problem getting them to deployed troops back then, and the facts tell us it still is now in 2004. Isn’t it time we fixed this problem using 21st Century technology? Or do we just continue to shrug our shoulders at the fact that Nuke Submariners still don’t even get the opportunity to vote?
Almost all military absentee ballots in 2004 were still paper documents requiring postal delivery: NDC’s survey results document that there are deployed troops that are still not receiving their military absentee ballots in time to vote and return them back in time to be counted. This was a problem back in Harry Truman’s day and is still a problem; however, this is the 21st Century and the technology exists to correct these problems. If the military can transmit highly classified messages securely all over the world and if the world business community can transfer billions and billions of dollars daily via digital means and if our troops in the jungle and at sea can send and receive e-mail messages, don’t our sons and daughters deployed overseas deserve the use of this technology to provide them with the opportunity to vote and have their vote counted? Isn’t it “truly ugly” to send them into situations where they can lose their lives yet not provide them the opportunity in our free society, no matter where we send them, to have a say in who the elected officials are that sent them there?
So bottom line, even now in November 2004, is that with military absentee voting, there’s still plenty of “good, bad, and ugly” to go around. The above are just a few of hundreds and hundreds of situations where the systems and technology exist to “fix the problem,” but the political will or taking the time to see it through and get it done seems sorely lacking.
Surely our own sons and daughters in uniform deserve better. Surely if we have the technology to transmit billions internationally and communicate digitally and securely all over the world, we can solve this simple matter of getting a digital ballot to our military guys and gals, and provide for their casting that ballot back to their LEO both securely and in time to be counted?
C’mon, NEW “Just Elected/Reelected” U. S. CONGRESS (and existing Governors and Secretaries of State and LEO’s and DOD Officials and Admirals and Generals and Command Master Chiefs and Sergeants Major) -- surely we can provide the focus to make this happen?
Surely we care enough about the men and women of our Armed Forces to get this done FOR THEM?
