Bond Urges Pentagon to Investigate and Act to Prevent Repeat
WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. Senator Kit Bond today again urged the Pentagon to address the problems surrounding military voting. In a letter Bond wrote to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Bond detailed the disenfranchisement many servicemen and women experienced during Missouri's August primary. Bond insisted on the need to act immediately in order to avoid the same problems in upcoming primaries across the country.
"I know we both agree that none of our dedicated servicemen and women deserve to be disenfranchised from their most fundamental right as Americans and that they deserve nothing less that our very best efforts on their behalf," Bond wrote Rumsfeld.
Recent GAO and DoD Inspector General reports outlining both mail delivery problems and problems in the military's voter assistance program show that these issues have not been addressed since 2000.
Since March when Senator Bond learned of this problem, he has been pressing the Pentagon bureaucracy to begin to address the mail delivery problems for troops overseas.
Bond continues to stress that with the 2004 elections just months away U.S. soldiers abroad may be denied the right to vote as a result of delays in the delivery of absentee ballots.
In Missouri's August primary Bond's predictions were proved true. Many servicemen and women were unable to vote. According to State Representative Jim Avery, a combat engineer stationed in Iraq with the 1140th Engineering battalion, none of the 21 soldiers in his squad received absentee ballots in time to vote. Some never received ballots at all and others did not have sufficient time to mail them back. According to an Associated Press report earlier this week, of the 795 military absentee ballots mailed out from St. Louis County, where Representative Avery is from, just 317 were returned by election day. In another instance, 13 absentee ballots were mailed from St. Francois County in which eight were returned to the clerk's office as undeliverable and none returned with votes.
Bond asked the Department of Defense to investigate the situation in Missouri and provide solutions to ensure it will not be repeated in upcoming primaries across the nation.
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