States tackle military-voting process

In the wake of suspected military voter fraud during Election 2000, some states have begun to address ways to improve military absentee-voter response and to ensure that more military votes are counted.

Last week, a Minnesota Senate committee endorsed a measure that would make voting by absentee ballot an option for more of the state's residents, "including military men and women overseas," officials said.

The proposal would allow voters to apply for absentee ballots simply because it is more convenient; would drop the requirement that a witness verify the marking of an absentee ballot; allow voters who are in the hospital or overseas to send ballots via fax; and allow one request for an absentee ballot to serve as a continuing request for each election until further notice.

Of the measure and of voting in general, state Sen. John Hottinger, a Democrat, said: "This isn't a privilege, … this is a fundamental right."

Backers of the measure said that although the Senate Rules Committee passed it 9-6, it is likely "to face a tougher battle in the GOP-controlled House."

Gov. Jesse Ventura also supports the measure.

Meanwhile, in Florida - site of five weeks of post-election legal wrangling that saw perhaps thousands of military absentee ballots tossed out by local canvassing boards - a House elections panel unanimously approved HM-37, which urges lawmakers in Washington, D.C., "to change federal law to require states to count absentee ballots from overseas military personnel, regardless of whether the ballots bear postmarks."

At the urging of a memo drafted by a Democratic lawyer in the weeks following the close Florida election tally between then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore, some local canvassing boards threw out military absentee ballots because they lacked postmarks.

Under Florida law, absentee ballots from overseas military personnel are supposed to be counted as long as they bear a postmark or are signed and dated.

Some military personnel complained that the Pentagon's absentee ballot forms did not include spaces for witness signatures. Also, many commands lacked a postmark machine and therefore could not affix a postmark.

In the Florida Senate, a companion measure - SM-1308 - has yet to be acted upon by the Rules and Calendar Committee.

On the federal level, Congress has so far not addressed - in the way of formal legislation - the military absentee-ballot issue. Some Republican lawmakers, during the post-election morass in Florida, had vowed to do so.

Also, the Pentagon has yet to issue new guidelines for ensuring that more military personnel are able to cast their ballots in time for future elections.

Finally, lawsuits filed by some military personnel after the Nov. 7 election, which charge that the Pentagon and some local canvassing boards improperly discarded otherwise legitimate ballots, are still in the process of moving forward.

Reporter Jon Dougherty's just-released, 100-page 'WorldNetDaily Special Report" titled "Election 2000: How the military vote was suppressed," is the most comprehensive journalistic account of the problems, political machinations and subversion of military votes unearthed during Election 2000. It is available from WND's online store.