Report: States shortchange military voters overseas

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Report: States shortchange military voters overseas

By Maria Tucker | McClatchy Newspapers


WASHINGTON — Many states are giving military voters overseas too little time to cope with cumbersome mailing systems, according to a study that the Pew Center on the States released Tuesday.

Other states use faxed or e-mailed ballots, which deprive military voters of privacy, according to Pew, a non-profit public interest group.

Pentagon officials said the U.S. Postal Service and the Military Postal Service Agency expedite voting materials and ballots, but a Pew researcher said that many local election offices don't know that the faster service is available.

Under the most widely used delivery system, the U.S. Postal Service delivers voting materials to three gateway cities: Miami, New York or San Francisco. The Military Postal Service Agency delivers them to installations and individuals around the world.

The process can take 25 days — plus 25 more to deliver registrations and ballots to a voting precinct back home. Add the 25 days that it takes at the beginning to request a ballot, and the total's 75 days plus preparation and processing time.

"While these soldiers are serving America, America's voting system is not serving them," said David Becker, the Project Director of Make Voting Work, a division of the Pew Center on the States.

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