Pentagon hopes to fix overseas balloting delays
Washington Post
WASHINGTON — Plagued by a history of problems delivering mail, especially in wartime, the Pentagon will soon unveil a program to do a better job getting ballots overseas and back so units deployed in combat zones and elsewhere can cast votes in the fall presidential election.
The pledge for improvement comes amid critical reports on laggardly military mail service and complaints about shortages of forms to request absentee ballots for overseas civilians.
Pentagon studies of recent elections have found that about a quarter of overseas military service members who try to get an absentee ballot do not get it in time or return it to their local election office in time.
A General Accounting Office study released this month said historic military mail problems have resurfaced in Iraq.
The Pentagon and Postal Service are putting finishing touches on a joint agreement for speedy handling of ballots to units overseas. The ballots will travel in specially colored containers so everyone knows they need priority handling, said Charles S. Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. His portfolio includes the Federal Voting Assistance Program responsible for more than 6 million military and civilian voters overseas.
The Postal Service will keep track of how many absentee ballots go out and come back.
Samuel F. Wright is skeptical of the "snail mail" solution.
"We've heard that before. I'm hopeful, but the proof is in the pudding," said Wright, director of the Military Voting Rights Project for the National Defense Committee in Arlington, Va.
Wright's one-man operation has been fighting the problem of missed military ballots for 23 years.
In his own 2002 survey, Wright found that more than two-fifths of military voters' ballots did not get counted because of paperwork errors, missed deadlines or other problems.
Wright supports online voting, but the Pentagon two months ago canceled its $22 million pilot program that would have let 100,000 overseas citizens vote via Internet. Experts said the Internet is so insecure that counting online votes could jeopardize the integrity of the entire election.
