<Still no links eh zonkie? >
Why did you give up hounding me for a link so quickly bare? You didn't even ask me 10 times. I thought someone as dimwitted as you are would not give up so easily. Well anyway here is an article which supports my claim that there were ballots counted in Florida in 2000 that were received after the deadline. From now on please be prepared to show a link for every claim you make.
_______________
reuters.com
U.S. Aims to Smooth Absentee Voting by Troops
Wed Jun 2, 2004 04:43 PM ET
By Will Dunham
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon, joined by the U.S. Postal Service, is taking steps to make it quicker and more reliable for U.S. troops overseas to cast absentee ballots, after scrapping a plan to let them vote over the Internet, officials said on Wednesday.
The Defense Department and the Postal Service pledged to improve their coordination, and make letters carrying paper absentee ballots a higher priority ahead of the Nov. 2 presidential election.
"Simply put, it's a low-tech solution," Paul Vogel, a Postal Service vice president, told a Pentagon briefing.
Pentagon official Charles Abell said that steps being taken included a redesign of the ballot envelope to guard against confusion over when troops cast a ballot, designed to meet local absentee voting deadlines.
The Pentagon's Military Postal System will ensure each completed ballot gets a proper, legible postmark when it is mailed and gets priority transportation back into the U.S. Postal Service system after being mailed in far-off locales like Iraq and Afghanistan, officials said.
The proper recording of military ballots became a critical issue in the disputed 2000 election between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, when hundreds of ballots postmarked after Election Day or not postmarked or witnessed at all were counted by Florida officials.
Those ballots, many of which were counted in Bush strongholds under heavy Republican pressure, were credited with helping Bush to his 537-vote victory in Florida.
The Defense Department on Jan. 30 dumped a $22 million pilot program to allow 100,000 U.S. troops and other Americans overseas to vote this year over the Internet, saying the system was so vulnerable to computer hackers that it could cast doubt on the integrity of election results.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote a memo stressing to the military's top regional commanders worldwide the importance of providing voting assistance for troops.
Abell said the Pentagon in early September will encourage troops who have not requested their absentee ballot to do so. He said the Pentagon wants military personnel to cast their ballots the week of Oct. 11.
"If we look at the mail transit times from even the remotest parts of Iraq or Afghanistan, we believe that if they vote in that week, their ballots will be back home in the state, county, precinct to be counted well before Election Day," Abell said.
© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved. |
