519,000 ballots cast by overseas troops

[unhappycamper]

519,000 ballots cast by overseas troops
By Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Nov 7, 2008 21:28:31 EST

The Military Postal Service Agency had returned 519,032 overseas absentee ballots to local election offices as of Nov. 4, more than 2½ times the total of 203,233 returned in the 2004 election, officials said.

MPSA delivered 415,428 absentee ballots to APO and FPO addresses between Sept. 8 and Nov. 4, said Shari Lawrence, Army Human Resources Command spokeswoman, more than twice the total of 205,418 sent out in the same time period in 2004.

Some people were able to get ballots electronically, depending on the state. That’s why nearly 105,000 more ballots were received by local election officials this year than were mailed through the military postal system to APO/FPO addresses.

Also, an estimated 10,000 overseas voters sent ballots by FedEx under a partnership with the Overseas Vote Foundation and the express shipper, which offered free or discounted delivery of ballots from 89 countries. No problems were reported with the mail aspect of the voting through Nov. 4 by either MPSA or the Federal Voting Assistance Program, said Yvonne Yoerger, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service.

The number of absentee ballots sent to local election offices is just one part of the equation. Officials at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission now will analyze and report on how many of the ballots actually were counted, said Matthew Weil, research program specialist at the commission.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/11/airforce_absenteeshort_110708/%2e

[Warren Stupidity]

1. Does anyone wonder why we have 500,000+ soldiers overseas?

Isn't it time to stop the madness?

[rakeeb]

2. considering the fact that we only have about 393,000 troops

deployed to a total of about 32 countries right now, the story is a bit misleading by calling them all "troops" ..... since the 5th grade teacher at Ramstein Air Base and the electrician at Aviano AB and a couple hundred thou other civilian skilled and unskilled employees get to use the military postal service to send mail and ballots back to the states.