By Michael del Castillo
The Department of Justice has granted a waiver to New York State delaying the counting of as many as 22,000 New York soldiers’ votes who requested ballots from overseas this year. In spite of many improvements since 2008 soldiers continue to find it difficult to cast their votes on time.
“I don’t think there is any question of the importance of counting any American citizens’ votes, whether they be soldiers or civilians,” says First Lieutenant Will Woldenberg, who joined the New York National Guard in 2008 and is currently deployed in Iraq. “Our votes shouldn’t be treated any different than anyone else’s.”
New Yorker, Lt. Col. Paul Fanning, who voted from the battle lines in 2008, says, “Knowing that our votes made a difference encouraged us to vote. We wanted to make sure we were connected. While we were mentoring and training Afghanistan soldiers they were watching us, and watching us vote as soldiers,” he says.
In 2008 one of the biggest stumbling blocks to getting ballots to soldiers was in the various legal requirements of each state, says Eric Durr, Director of Public Affairs at the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs. “This year,” says Durr, “the army has about 6,600 Voter Assistance Officers (VTOs) across the force to help soldiers apply for ballots. There’s a real effort to let the soldiers know that their vote will be counted no matter where they are.”
During this years elections VTOs helped sign up soldiers for absentee ballots at tables outside mess halls on the front lines. The VTOs, who arrived a month in advance, should have given the soldiers plenty of time to request and submit their ballots, says Woldenberg.
“The military has placed an importance on the duties of a citizen and it definitely made it easier for soldiers to vote,” says Woldenberg.
Woldenberg, who also voted absentee in 2008, says the VTOs significantly improved the voting process. But says that wasn’t enough.
The Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act guarantees that if soldiers want to vote they can vote, says Scott Wiedmann, Deputy Director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program. Last year, says Wiedmann, MOVE (Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment) was passed which guaranteed that ballots would be available 45 days before Election Day.
Fanning, a former Voter Assistance Officer, says, “We made a concerted effort to register voter soldiers, contact home towns for them, get the ballots mailed, make sure the ballots were completed, and get the ballots mailed back home in time.”
However, MOVE also gave states the opportunity to apply to the Department of Justice for a waiver, if they were unable to comply with the new requirements. Due to New York’s late primary election that’s exactly what they did. And they received it.
Wiedmann says that soldier make calls home about local elections and discuss policies amongst each other. “When they elect a congress member, “ says Wiedmann, “there’s not many people whose pay is more directly affected by congressional policy – they take it very seriously.”
Yet this Veterans Day many soldiers’ votes may not be counted until as late as November 24th.
“I definitely think there should be work to get the message out that [the soldiers] votes still count. If the results are finalized before the soldiers votes are counted it will be discouraging, but won’t discourage them from voting in the future,” says Fanning.
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