- Reuters
Roseann McMenemy of Bradford, Massachusetts, holds a portrait of her daughter Jennie, who serves in the U.S. Army, at a campaign rally for U.S. President George W. Bush in Manchester, New Hampshire, yesterday. McMenemy said she expected her daughter, currently serving in Germany, to be transferred to Iraq within the next year.
NEW YORK (AP):
DURING THE chaotic 2000 election, thousands of U.S. troops overseas voted for president, only to have their ballots rejected. Others did not receive ballots at all. And some found the entire process confusing.
Four years later with more than 160,000 U.S. troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan Democrats and Republicans alike worry that the same thing will happen in the November 2 election. They say reforms enacted by Congress after 2000 have not fixed the problems.
"I just pray for our country. We have to allow the military vote to be counted," said Joan Hills, director of Republicans Abroad, which helps U.S. citizens vote from overseas. Her organisation's website has received 1,700 hits a day in the past two weeks from worried military personnel who did not receive their ballots.
"Not allowing military members to vote during wartime would be devastating," said Duke University political science professor, Peter Feaver. "They're not sitting in comfortable offices in Germany anymore. Now they're under mortar attack in Iraq."
IMPORTANT ROLE
With so many troops fighting in the Middle East, members of the military could play a huge role in deciding the next commander in chief in this dead-heat presidential contest.
In 2000, for example, Florida officials disqualified 1,527 military votes because they lacked postmarks. George W. Bush won Florida - and the presidency - by 537 votes.
The military traditionally votes Republican. In one recent informal survey of the armed forces and their family members, 72 per cent of respondents said they favoured Bush over Democrat John Kerry.
Many of the problems that marred the military vote in 2000 are cropping up again.
More than a dozen states including those too close to call missed the recommended deadline to mail ballots overseas. One of the reasons: legal arguments over whether independent candidate Ralph Nader should be listed on ballots.
