(OT) Isopatch, How ironic that the members of the military may be the ultimate arbiters of the Gore/Bush election-From today's Boston Globe:
UNFORTUNATE FOR GORE
But unfortunately for Gore, history and statistics suggest the
Texas governor will win the majority of them.
Military voters typically leaned toward Republican candidates,
tipping the odds in Bush's favor, expert said.
"It appears there is a good possibility that absentee ballots
from this military population in Florida could have a major
impact on the final outcome of the vote," said Ed Offley,
editor in chief of Stars and Stripes, a leading newspaper
covering U.S. military issues. He added that he expected the
votes would tip the balance for Bush.
"Military people tend to vote Republican by about
eight-or-nine-to-one," he added.
Offley found the military's influence on the outcome "ironic,"
given the general decline in spending on the military over the
past decade. He said that while both Bush and Gore had
promised to reinvigorate the miliary, the increased spending
they promised would not even scratch the surface of the
problems facing the U.S. military.
Federal statistics from the 1996 election show that 3.1
percent of the U.S. vote was from absentee voters overseas.
Of that, about 63 percent were either military or federal
government employees.
The United States has about 116,000 troops stationed in
Europe and about 100,000 others in the Asia-Pacific region
aboard ships. As well as absentee ballots from those troops,
their families can vote from abroad.
History, too, would seem to point to Bush's winning Florida's
overseas absentee ballots. In 1996, Republican presidential
nominee Bob Dole won about 54 percent of the 2,300 votes
counted in Florida from Americans abroad.
A recent study by two Duke University professors found 64
percent of officers describing themselves as Republicans and
just 8 percent as Democrats, further boosting Bush's hopes.
E-mail could also play a role, albeit very minor, in the
absentee count. A new pilot program by five states, including
Florida, allowed service members to cast absentee ballots
over the Internet instead of through the mail.
But only about 350 votes from the five states were expected
to be cast under the pilot scheme, aimed at helping military
personnel vote from places like submarines where the mail
cannot be accessed. |
