Cheney did not vote in 14 of 16 elections -report
DALLAS, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Republican vice presidential
candidate Dick Cheney failed to vote in 14 of 16 elections
since moving to Texas in 1995, including the March primary in
which he could have cast a ballot for his future running mate,
George W. Bush, the Dallas Morning News reported on Friday.
The newspaper said Cheney's 2-for-16 voting history in
mainly state and local elections compares with a five-for-six
rate of election participation over the same period for his
Democratic rival for the vice presidency, Sen. Joe Lieberman of
Connecticut.
Cheney, campaigning on Thursday in Maine, declined requests
for an interview about his voting record, the Morning News
said. Cheney spokesman Dirk Vande Beek said, "He does think
that voting is important. He did it whenever he could."
Dallas County records show that Cheney registered to vote
in Texas in December 1995 after moving to the wealthy Dallas
enclave of Highland Park from the Washington, D.C., area. He
moved to Texas as the new chief executive officer of oilfield
service company Halliburton Co.
The records show Cheney voted in the November 1996
presidential election and the November 1998 race for Texas
governor and other state and local offices.
The 14 elections Cheney skipped in Dallas County included
the 1996 presidential and state primaries, primary runoffs and
Highland Park city elections, and the 1999 primary and primary
runoffs.
To avoid a constitutional conflict with running mates from
the same state, Cheney changed his voter registration to his
home in Wyoming in July, days before being tapped as Bush's
running mate. He voted in the subsequent Republican
presidential primary there.
The newspaper said records in New Haven, Connecticut, show
that Lieberman voted in all but one of six elections there
since December 1995, missing a November 1997 mayoral contest.
Records were not available before 1995.
Voter logs in Austin and Dallas show that since 1988, Bush
has voted in 38 of 39 elections, missing only the 1992 primary.
Gore has not missed any of the 16 elections since 1972 in his
hometown of Carthage, Tennessee, the newspaper said.
REUTERS
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