Americans vote in Afghanistan [View All]

[babylonsister]

Americans vote in Afghanistan
By Jason Straziuso, The Associated Press
European edition, Saturday, October 18, 2008


KABUL, Afghanistan — American soldiers, aid workers and military contractors in Afghanistan are filling out absentee ballots this week and sending them back to the U.S. to be counted by election officials.

U.S. soldiers and citizens in Afghanistan — which has no reliable mail service — face difficulties making sure their votes get counted.

But the U.S. military has made a big push this year to help soldiers request ballots, advertising the process with TV commercials, posters and ballot drives outside dining halls and recreations centers.

The top U.S. commander in eastern Afghanistan, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, said he thinks this year’s effort was "the most significant drive probably in our nation’s history" to make sure deployed soldiers can vote.

"I’ve been around for 32 years and been overseas more times than I can count, and it used to be near impossible for me or my spouse to vote," Schloesser said. "We’ve come a heck of a long ways and we’ve devoted a lot of resources so U.S. military personnel can vote this year."

Defense Department figures would seem to support that: From Sept. 8 to Oct. 14, 145,087 ballots were sent to voters overseas, according to Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Les’ Melnyk.

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