Saturday, August 02, 2008

Senate Bill Aimed at Making Absentee Ballots from Overseas Count

WASHINGTON — "Although roughly 6 million U.S. citizens are eligible to vote oversees using absentee ballots — many of whom are serving in the military — only a fraction of their ballots are being counted.

The bipartisan Election Assistance Commission found that of the nearly 1 million absentee ballots sent out for the 2006 election, only 300,000 actually were counted. Some estimate the low return of absentee ballots meant 400,000 service members' votes overseas weren't counted.

The problem seems to be the mail. It takes 18 days for the U.S. Postal Service to deliver mail to Iraq and 18 days for it to be returned.

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has introduced legislation that would allow absentee ballots to be sent via Federal Express to those serving in the military, although there reportedly is resistance from the postal union.

"It should be a national scandal that, here, our men and women in uniform who are protecting our freedom who are exposing themselves to harm are being denied the most basic civil right, and that is the right to vote," Cornyn said.

Cornyn has 29 co-sponsors to his Military Voting Protection Act, all of them Republican."

Wow. Now how strange is that. What a co-inki-dink. Almost makes one think that democrats don't want the military to vote.

Nah. They LOVE the troops.

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