Panetta makes show of pushing the vote
The Washington Times reports that Leon Panetta and the Pentagon are going through the motions of encouraging the troops to vote;
“Reports of precipitous drops in military voting hide the actual experience of a significant increase in military voting this year,” said Mr. Carey.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program, which helps troops negotiate the confusing patchwork of 50 sets of state rules about absentee registration and voting, is orchestrating the last-minute campaign. Last week, it sent the sixth in a series of “blast” emails to everyone with a military email address. About 12 million emails have been sent out, with one more blast planned before Election Day.
“If you have not requested your absentee ballot for the 2012 general election, you should do so immediately,” reads the email, which advises troops on how to download the right forms from the program’s website. The instructions include a substitute write-in ballot they can mail if their own ballot does not arrive from their state election authorities in time.
Yeah, impressive. Except that I have a .mil email account and I haven’t seen the message. I wonder how many of the rest of you have seen it.
By the way, I hope you guys from a particular unit that is deployed and spent more than 4 hours on TAH the other night clicking 157 links to the stolen valor criminals, took some time to download your own voter registration form. We appreciate your patronage, but please vote.
Category: Military issues
Hmmmm. I have a .mil account too, and I haven’t gotten one either. They did say the push is aimed “especially [to] those posted overseas.” I wonder if they just excluded stateside .mil addresses for that reason.
I have one as well, and I have not yet seen it.
Ditto…I have 2 .mil accounts and have not heard a peep.
I have actually gotten the emails in my .mil account.
The only FVAP email I’ve received is from the butter bar in my squadron earlier last month. There is actually quite a lot of younger generation individuals who aren’t voting. They don’t see the purpose. Sad really.
I have two .mils. One is us.mil and the other is usar.mil and the only email about voting I have recieved is from my unit’s voting assistance officer.
Twist, you have one of those?
I know, it’s an anomaly.
I got one last Thursday.
I have an army.mil account still, and I haven’t seen any of that stuff either. But, I am living in the US and can take care of shit like that.
@5 – I agree. My son is very frustrated that most of his classmates in tech school couldn’t care less. They actually make fun of him for being interested in the election and for being knowledgeable about current events. He was very excited and proud when he emailed back his completed ballot (yes, Colorado exists in the 21st century).
If young people in our military are so apathetic, what does that say for young people just in college or out in the world? Not a whole lot I’m afraid.
Two,
Thu 10/4/2012 4:10 PM and Tue 8/7/2012 10:19 AM
From news@updates.fvap.gov
I am CONUS so the only challenge will be wadding thru the deep blue voter lines at Dartmouth.
My Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children T-shirt keeps the idle chatter to a minum.
@11 It’s what they are taught is the social norm while in school from what I’ve been finding out. I have one co-worker brand new to the military and learning the hard way that we don’t work on a grading curve. Thinks we arent that significant to make a difference in the election.
Nada.
Nothing at my .mil account, but, they’ve been running “commercials” around the clock on AFN.
Sesame street has asked both campaigns to stop running ads referring to Big Bird.
‘The Romney campaign noted that Obama has in recent days made more public references to Big Bird than Libya – where the U.S. consulate was recently attacked and the ambassador killed.’ — from today’s news.
Well, if you’re a loser to begin with, why would you focus on the things that make you look bad. Or is it worse when you look bad using Big Bird?
Vote paperwork done.