Military Votes: Were they counted?

[Paligal]

I am wondering, as I watch the incredibly insulting way that Rumsfeld addresses our soldiers' concerns in the press conference they just showed on CNN, whether or not all the absentee ballots were counted from overseas. I had assumed that military would mostly go Republican, but now I see firsthand how PO'd they are. When one soldier tells Rumsfeld that they are going through garbage dumps to find scrap metal to put on their vehicles as armor, Rumsfeld casually says, "Well, you go to war with the army you have, not the one you want to have in the future."
There is no way these guys could have supported this administration. So now I wonder- were all the absentee ballots counted from overseas? Anyone know? It might be a stupid question, but we have been focusing on the domestic ballots/election, so I am not quite sure. Like in Ohio, it could make a difference if they didn't bother to count the absentees.

[babylonsister]

1. This has been asked a lot, and it seems

no one has a clue. How would one go about finding out whether the military's voice was even heard? :shrug:

[For PaisAn]

2. I wondered the same thing

Why this year are we not hearing anything on the military ballot breakdown of votes? Were they even counted?
Either they didn't bother to count these absentee ballots or they went for Kerry and the administration doesn't want that getting out. Either way it's important to find out.

[Raster]

3. Remember in 2000, the whole military vote thing was SHOVED down...

... our throats to the point that through P.R. intimidation, illegal military votes were RAMMED through the system. That included votes that were of questionable (some cases considerable) origin and votes that were clearly received AFTER the deadline. Every 'puke within a hundred miles was screaming about "count every military vote" and "not counting military votes, even questionable ones, was not supporting the troops."

Now we see a military CLEARLY un-enamoured of the bush* administration and you don't hear squat about the military vote. Where's the "independent" media on this one? Sadly, another rhetorical question.

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. Just call your local Secretary of Elections and ask

I asked mine and this is what I found out.

This year they made it as easy as possible for the military to vote. The could mail in their ballot, vote over the Internet of fax it in. All three areas would be vulnerable to fraud.

Because it was so easy to vote, most overseas ballots were received in time to be counted in on election day. So the overseas ballots were counted in with the absentee ballots. This makes it hard to find out how the military voted.

However a few precincts have published their overseas vote data and from what I've seen the overseas vote was about 50% Bush / 50% Kerry.

[spotbird]

5. There isn't much

I don't have time to clean this up,sorry.

In Lucas County, of the 5,379 provisional, military, overseas civilian, and hospital voters, Mr. Kerry won 3,662 of them, or 68.1 percent. Mr. Bush won 1,701, or 31.6 percent.
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041202/NEWS09/412020398/-1/NEWS

The county also collected additional votes through late-arriving absentee ballots. Normally the deadline to recieve absentee ballots is Election Day, but the state extended the cutoff date this year for military men and women serving overseas.

In the final results, Democratic candidates prevailed in Greene in every race except president and U.S. senator.

Presidential candidate John F. Kerry won 25 of the 45 additional votes, but President George W. Bush edged his Democratic challenger by 112 votes. Bush is the first Republican presidential candidate since Richard Nixon to win Greene County. Bush won his re-election, even though Pennsylvania went to Kerry.
http://www.observer-reporter.com/281989458937021.bsp

Meanwhile, the board tallied ballots for 87 Broward voters serving in the military.

Those voters chose Democratic candidate John Kerry over President Bush, 51-34. Two did not make a choice in the presidential race.
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/local/10177124.htm

The late count of provisional and overseas – predominantly military – ballots took place Sunday and Monday at the county courthouse. White added 54 votes to her total, whereas Baxter only added 30. (As an interesting footnote, Butts said the majority of military votes in the Travis Co. presidential race went to John Kerry, who took 259 votes to George Bush's 138.) Witnessing the vote count for the Democrats were Butts and lawyer MariBen Ramsey (both representing the White campaign) along with local party Chair Chris Elliott and coordinated campaign director Glen Maxey. Republican poll watchers during the two-day process featured several attorneys from the Locke Liddell & Sapp law firm, as well as the always unpredictable former (Democratic) County Judge Bill Aleshire, representing the Baxter campaign on behalf of the Riggs & Aleshire law firm. County GOP Chair Alan Sager also attended

http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2004-11-12/pols_feature5.html

[BlueDog2u]

6. Kick! n/t

:dem:

[mod mom]

7. Maybe we should play along with the media who

are making a big deal (rightfully so) about the soldier questioning Rumsfeld. this would be a great time to get the media to answer WHO WON THE MILITARY VOTE. The silence on this matters raises suspicion.

[skids]

8. Here's cuyahoga "absentee"

I don't know quite what the numbers in the precinct name stand for, but one of them is the senate district I think, another might be house.

Kerry had a smaller margin here than in the polls, but there is a good amount of variation... any of those districts have military bases?

"Precinct","PrecinctName","Ballots","L","R","D","N","C",undervote
"cuy7915","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 11-11-21",3021,12,379,2437,0,8,185
"cuy7916","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 11-12-25",5038,10,486,4275,0,6,261
"cuy7914","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 11-10-21",2955,4,442,2361,0,6,142
"cuy7904","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 10-12-25",1490,5,439,978,0,3,65,
"cuy7902","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 10-10-21",938,1,294,603,0,2,38
"cuy7917","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 11-13-23",231,0,41,180,0,1,9
"cuy7911","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 11-07-25",6100,14,1795,4049,0,11,231
"cuy7909","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 10-17-24",2253,3,1026,1131,0,8,85
"cuy7913","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 11-09-21",6501,16,1294,4941,0,6,244
"cuy7923","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 14-98-18",1436,3,760,619,0,2,52
"cuy7907","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 10-15-23",7567,22,2927,4350,0,15,253
"cuy7906","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 10-14-23",5550,17,1925,3407,0,18,183
"cuy7905","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 10-13-23",4597,8,1539,2891,0,12,147
"cuy7912","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 11-08-25",9099,11,1816,6971,0,12,289
"cuy7919","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 11-98-18",594,1,191,385,0,0,17
"cuy7903","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 10-11-21",1128,4,385,706,0,1,32
"cuy7918","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 11-17-24",3421,8,1331,1986,0,2,94
"cuy7908","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 10-16-24",10278,22,5332,4658,0,22,244
"cuy7910","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 10-18-24",3291,9,1481,1723,0,3,75
"cuy7920","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 13-17-24",2645,12,1461,1111,0,5,56
"cuy7921","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 13-18-24",4165,12,2278,1790,0,2,83
"cuy7922","ABSENTEE VOTERS - 14-17-24",2914,8,1466,1391,0,4,45

[gingergreen]

9. I think mine wasn't counted

I am living in Germany and filed for my absentee a month before the election. A week before it had still not arrived --- so I sent in a write-in ballot. Then, the DAY OF the election I received the absentee ballot in the mail -- but there was no way it would make it back in time. Then I received ANOTHER absentee ballot in the mail a WEEK AFTER the election. I hope the write-in ballot was counted, but after several attempts to contact the Colorado Election Commission and several others: fairvote.org, etc. I have still received no reply on whether or not my ballot was received or counted.

I also know 3 of my friends in Colorado had almost identical situations.

Anyone else know about the absentee results in Colorado?

[skids]

10. What's a "FEDERAL BALLOT"?

Is it military? Answer me that, and I'll tell you how the 12 of
them cast in one Ohio county were split.