Representatives of the American Legion, the nation’s largest military veteran’s organization, will testify before a House committee that changes are needed in local, state and federal elections laws because too few serving military members are able to vote.
Dennis M. Duggan, deputy director of the national security and foreign relations division of the Legion, is scheduled to appear before the House Committee on Administration today to argue for changes to election laws that prevented perhaps as many as 200,000 serving military members the right to vote in last November’s general elections.
“The American Legion believes that it has been a travesty to deny the protectors of our democracy their constitutional right to participate in the electoral process,” Duggan, according to a copy of his statement faxed to WorldNetDaily, will say at today’s hearing.
“The servicemen and women whose votes have been disqualified in elections are part of the tradition of the American citizen-soldier whose very sacrifices have preserved the right to vote for all of us,” Duggan’s statement said.
Tens of thousands of military members were denied the right to vote in the Nov. 7 election, as exclusively reported by WorldNetDaily even before the election was held. Nowhere was the prospect of losing military votes more important than in Florida, where then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore finished virtually tied for the state’s crucial 25 electoral votes.
In the weeks that followed the election, hand counts and recounts were demanded by Democrats in just a few key Democratic-controlled counties. And at least one Democratic lawyer drafted a five-page memo sent to all the state’s 67 canvassing boards, instructing elections officials on how to disqualify military votes.
Military voters, the Gore campaign believed, were sure to go heavily for Republican Bush, which was, in fact, the case. The military voted nearly 81 percent in favor of Republican candidate Bob Dole in 1996 in his race against Bill Clinton.
“The controversy over uncounted military absentee ballots in Florida in the 2000 presidential election has highlighted a longstanding problem which has been allowed to persist,” Duggan, in the statement, said. “We are led to believe, however, that the large percentage of overseas military ballots that were set aside and not counted during this election was not at all unusual. The percentage of discounted ballots was similar in the 1996 and 1998 federal elections, as well.
“What was different this year was the closeness of the presidential election and the distinct possibility that military absentee ballots may have provided the winning edge in the election,” the statement says.
Duggan makes reference to similar military absentee voting concerns expressed in hearings before the same House committee in 1952. Then, the prospect of tens of thousands of U.S. military personnel being denied the right to vote loomed large as the Korean War raged on.
“President [Harry S] Truman noted that any federal legislation should be temporary ‘since it should be provided to make all the necessary changes in state laws before the congressional elections of 1954,'” the statement said.
“Now, nearly half a century later, the necessary changes” in state and federal laws “have not been made,” Duggan pointed out. “Due to late primaries, lawsuits about redistricting or ballot access or other problems, state and local absentee ballots oftentimes are not printed nor sent to overseas voters in a timely manner.”
As such, Duggan said, overseas military members and American civilians alike “often do not have the time to receive, mark and return their ballots in time to be counted” — a problem dozens of military members made known to WND during its military absentee ballot coverage.
Duggan does not lay the blame solely on Congress or the states.
“Complacency on the part of [some] military units has undoubtedly compounded military absentee voting,” his statement read.
“Voting assistance in the military is often an additional duty relegated to the most junior officers,” he said. “Special vigilance is often not given to handling election mails.”
On some warships in the Gulf and around the world, WND reported that “pallets” of mail bags containing unknown numbers of military absentee ballots were left lying on decks — in a few instances for more than two days — even though incoming mail flights landed to deliver mail.
Also, many members complained that, for the first time in their military career, they had not received military absentee ballots, even though they were well-schooled in how to request such ballots and ordered them in plenty of time.
Despite some efforts by the Pentagon and states to streamline the absentee ballot voting procedure, “on the average, 30 percent of all military absentee ballots are still not counted in federal elections,” Duggan said — a figure substantiated by military ballot experts who spoke with WND last fall.
In a 1.4 million-member military, the figure comes to around 420,000.
Duggan and the Legion are pushing for new federal voting laws to address the historically poor military absentee ballot record for two reasons.
“First, the states have had nearly a half-century to resolve the problem, and they have not,” Duggan’s statement said, pointing out that “national defense is a uniquely federal responsibility” and that Washington, D.C., “has the authority and responsibility” to ensure military members and their eligible family members can vote.
“Secondly,” Duggan said, “congressional legislation is required because we need a more uniform and consistent system, not 50 systems. …”
“The aim of such legislation should be to assure that all military absentee voters who lay their lives on the line protecting our interests will have their ballots counted,” the statement said.
Duggan also noted that concern should be increased for the issue because of a “growing disparity” between Americans who have and have not served in the military.
Duggan, in the statement, said only 7.7 percent of American men age 25-34 have served in the armed forces. Meanwhile, over 40 percent of men age 55-64 have served, the statement said.
“National [Legion] Commander Ray Smith traveled to the Far East to visit the troops in the Korean demilitarized zone over Thanksgiving,” Duggan’s statement said. “He observed that the single most important issue to our military personnel serving overseas was the discounting of more than 1,400 absentee ballots in Florida during the … election.”
“There is nothing partisan about counting the votes of those citizens who took an oath to support and defend the Constitution,” Smith, Duggan said, noted on his return. “Unless an absentee ballot is so mutilated that the choices cannot be determined, the ballot should count. Service members must not be penalized because the system that delivered those ballots was protracted.”
The Legion’s National Executive Committee will consider and adopt a final position on military absentee voting next month, officials noted on the group’s website. Duggan, in his statement, said the 2.8 million-member group “will appoint a task force” to pursue the issue at national, state and local levels.
“The recent downing of a U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft and its crew by the People’s Republic of China graphically portrayed that even during times of relative peace, American service members continue to go into harm’s way in the service of their country,” Duggan said. “It is only fitting and proper that they have at least the same right to have their ballot counted as any other American.”
WND’s Jon Dougherty wrote a comprehensive 100-page report on the military absentee voting issue. Special Report: Election 2000 — How the Military Vote Was Suppressed is available in WorldNetDaily’s online store.
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