Report examines troop voting problemsPosted : Friday Nov 30, 2007 6:59:12 EST
NEW YORK — U.S. troops in Iraq and other places around the world are center stage in this year’s presidential election. But when it comes to casting votes for the candidates, American soldiers and other U.S. citizens living abroad often face daunting obstacles. A new report from the Century Foundation sheds light on this problem, which has received surprisingly little public attention. It also warns that with a frontloaded primary system and a large number of caucuses, U.S. military personnel and other citizens living abroad could find it more difficult than ever to have their votes count.
In a report titled “Bringing Voting Rights to Military and Overseas Voters,” author Tova Wang, Democracy Fellow at the Century Foundation, explains how difficult it is for military and overseas voters to cast a ballot, examines the problems encountered in making sure that their votes are counted, and suggests reforms for both easing the procedural problems and improving turnout among this often neglected group of voters.
According to the report, a survey by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission showed that only 5.5 percent of eligible military and overseas voters actually participated successfully in the 2006 midterm election. The survey and reports by the Department of Defense indicate that the most common reasons for the rejection of a military or overseas ballot is that it is received past the deadline or that the requested ballot sent to the voter is returned as undeliverable because the voter — who could be in a war zone — has moved from his or her previous location. Earlier studies have found that many overseas and military voters did not vote in the 2000 election because they received their absentee ballot too late or had not received it at all.
The Department of Defense and State Department have detailed programs for assisting soldiers and other overseas voters with registration and ballots. However, state laws vary tremendously regarding these voters, creating further confusion about registration deadlines, the date by which ballots need to be received, and whether or not ballots could be faxed or e-mailed.
According to the report, the biggest problem confronting overseas and military voters in the 2008 nominating system is the caucuses. More than one third of the states plan to have a nominating contest that is a caucus or convention for at least one of the two parties. Caucuses do not allow absentee ballots, and mandate personal attendance. As a consequence, they completely exclude members of the armed services stationed overseas or away from home within the U.S., voters who are working or studying abroad, and voters fulfilling government contracts, such as for the Department of Defense, the State Department, or USAID; similarly, the families of these individuals living away from home also cannot participate.
Wang reports that the second biggest problem facing military and overseas voters is the push to hold primaries and caucuses ever earlier. Voter registration and ballot requests are now competing with holiday mail. Registration deadlines for overseas and military voters for the 2008 primaries are as early as Dec. 10 in Washington, D.C.
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