Connecticut’s 3,900 Soldiers Could Vote in November
WASHINGTON, Oct 5 – With more U.S. citizens serving abroad this election day than in any since the Vietnam War – 500,000 military personnel, 3,900 from Connecticut alone — the Defense Department and the Connecticut Secretary of State are taking steps to make sure every one will be able to cast their ballot.
In 2000, 29 percent of the military ballots nationwide were disqualified because they were post-marked after the deadline, arrived late or did not arrive at all. This year U.S. officials are determined not to let it happen again.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon proposed that military personnel be allowed to vote either by email or fax. Twenty-three states have agreed to allow the military to vote by fax, while Missouri and North Dakota will allow e-mail voting.
But the Connecticut state legislature rejected the proposal, meaning that military personnel will still have to vote by absentee.
“The soldiers that use fax or e-mail will have to sign a waiver of their right to privacy” explained Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, “because their local election official will have to see what they vote for.”
A spokesman for the Connecticut Secretary of State said Tuesday that the legislature had been concerned that fax and e-mail voting would violate voters’ privacy.
Krenke dismissed concerns that service members will hesitate to vote if they have to do it more publicly.
Sam Wright, the director of the Military Voting Rights Project in Washington, supports the new systems proposed by the Pentagon.
“They guarantee the servicemen participation,” he said. “Sometimes the mail can take weeks, because it is very difficult to deliver them to someone that is constantly moving.”
The Connecticut Secretary of State’s office, which oversees elections, started sending the military absentee ballots overseas “a month ago,” said staff attorney Bernie Liu.
“The military is very good at returning them quickly,” he said. The deadline for the ballot to arrive is Election Day before the polls close. This year, the Department of Defense is using overnight mail which they hope will reduce to two to three days the time ballots take to get home.
Of the Connecticut men and women deployed overseas, 1,421 are assigned to Iraq and Afghanistan and 2,525 are in bases elsewhere in the world, according to the latest Pentagon figures.
Officials said it is still not too late to request an absentee ballot, which can be done by fax. Each service member can fax the local town clerk, who will then mail the ballot.
Democrat Party chairman George Jepsen expressed hope Tuesday that service members in this election will move away from their traditional support of Republicans.
“They are feeling let down by the Bush administration, which is pressing them into duty, sending them without the adequate protective gear and forcing them to stay longer overseas,” Jepsen said in a phone interview from his Hartford office..
But Connecticut Republican campaign officials said they were confident the military vote will remain in their column, pointing to a recent poll which gives the GOP at least 60 percent of the military vote.
“The soldiers don’t appreciate the idea that [Democratic presidential nominee John F.] Kerry did not vote for supplying funding to support the troops,” said Brian Farnen, executive director of the State Republican Party, during a telephone interview, “That hurts them greatly.”
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