Something else the Pentagon can’t do
Country Singer and John send us links to an article in Military Voter Protection Project which reports that military voters have requested 92% fewer ballots this year than they did in 2008. MVPP points their finger at the Pentagon which has failed to abide by the federal law;
With only 1,746 military voters in Virginia requesting absentee ballots so far this year — out of 126,251 service members in the state —the Military Voter Protection Project says the system has broken down.
And it’s not just in the Old Dominion. MVPP Executive Director Eric Eversole reports significant declines in absentee-ballot requests by service members across the nation.
Compiling data from Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, Alaska, Colorado and Nevada, Eversole’s organization found that military families have requested 55,510 absentee ballots so far this year. That’s a sharp decline from the 166,252 sought in those states in 2008.
The Virginia Watchdog reports;
The dropoff is ironic, considering that Congress passed the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE) in 2009 to help highly transient military voters obtain absentee ballots wherever they are stationed.
“The fact is that an incredibly small percentage of military voters are requesting absentee ballots for the 2012 election, even though a majority of military members — roughly two-thirds — will need to vote by absentee ballot,” Eversole said.
Eversole acknowledged that personal responsibility figures into the equation, but he said service members aren’t getting the same voter-assistance and access that civilians receive through motor-vehicle offices and social-service agencies.
In an election year when every vote will count, this is disappointing. But not unexpected.
Category: Military issues
That’s too high a number to blame just the Pentagon for. That appears to be a serious case of voter apathy, and the question is: why?
Interesting that VA is one of the battleground states in this year’s election, isn’t it?
Is it any wonder the Military Voting block feels kicked all the time–as when the State of Wisconsin is telling them that the date needed for an absentee ballot deadline is 1 week later than the actual date and they say it was an “error”?
It’s their right to vote or not, but it’s especially perplexing for them to vote and not be sure the vote is getting counted.
I’m a VAO for my rear detachment, and I’ve been pushing voting pretty hard.
I’m getting a few people to send in their ballot requests and write-in ballots, but it does seem like a majority just don’t want to bother for one reason or another.
Colour me SHOCKED – NOT!!!~
Of course something not tracked is how many have decided to change their residencies to more military friendly states, especially now that spouces don’t have to change when PCS’ing. Got my ballot last week from Tx. Also don’t forget military members and their dependants can use the Federal Write-in Absentee Ballots (FWAB)
Link: http://www.fvap.gov/resources/media/fwab.pdf
– Ish
Making sure he could vote while away in tech school was one of my son’s first actions when he got there. He got his ballot via email a couple of weeks ago and is going to the voting center to get it printed and scanned today.
However, he’s been really frustrated that most of his fellow classmates couldn’t care less about politics or current events. There was a lot of grumbling when the commander made them switch over to news channels in the DFac instead of ESPN.
When he tries to start a discussion about the election, most of them tell him to shut up. He tries to point out that their futures in the military as well as back home are dependent on the outcome of this election, but they really don’t care.
Maybe his generation (he’s almost 20) is just too into their selfish pursuits of drinking, texting, and hooking up to be responsible adults.
I’m not really shocked by this at all. When our electoral landscape resembles an political version of Jersey Shore more and more each cycle, people are going to start dropping out of the process, starting with the younger voters. Most guys still in uniform that know, are fed up with the same two parties brawling over being king of the mountain, when the mountain is built of shit and they just get stepped on in the process.
I feel for the VAOs, but I don’t think they’re likely to have an impact in changing this perception.
voter apathy;
1) your vote ultimately doesn’t count
1a) with people being paid $11/hr to protest against a candidate, i’m not sure the electoral college is a bad idea. basing your vote on a free phone ? smh@ the human race
2) voting feels to me, an anti partisan blue collar guy, like picking the least douchey person on the ballot. as long as politicians make so much money, they are douchey until proven non douchey to me. jfs