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Another Perspective
ACORN, Yes, Marines, No
Why is no one making sure sure our service men and women overseas are insured the right to vote?
ACORN, the organization whose foot soldiers faked voter registration applications in Missouri in 2004 and Seattle in 2006, has been in full battle mode this fall, signing up thousands of previously unregistered voters. Included were Mickey Mouse and, in Nevada, the starting lineup of the Dallas Cowboys. In Cleveland one young man was approached by ACORN registrars 73 times and signed up each time for a simple reward of a cigarette or a dollar bill.
The Secretary of State of Ohio, a Democrat, refused to send suspect registration applications to county elections offices for verification. She was ultimately upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court on a technicality. Meanwhile, ACORN, as it did in previous years, insisted that all its registrars were properly trained, did not have quotas to fill in order to be paid (though they were paid per capita for completed applications), that complaints were “politically motivated” and that if a few applications were incorrect they were innocent errors. In other words, they played the role of the legendary fox in the hen house who said, “Nobody here but us chickens.”
As all this has played out there has been a background chorus of Democrat, liberal and left-wing operatives insisting that no one eligible to vote must be denied the right to do so. Their leitmotif has been that sinister Republicans would, if possible, “suppress” votes in lower-income areas. Never mind that this is a chimera; they have repeated it often enough to get some to believe it.
This chorus, including as it does, many who are anti-military, has been silent on the matter of making sure our service men and women overseas are insured the right to vote. An untold number of these young people are, in fact, in danger of being denied that right, especially if they are in Iraq or Afghanistan.
This came home to my family this week. We learned from our grandson, a Lance Corporal in a Marine Combat Engineer unit in Iraq, that his absentee ballot, requested well over a month ago, was received by him on Thursday. His parents traced the matter with the local post office and found it had left there on September 29. It took a full month to reach him. By mailing it back this last Friday he has a very slim chance it will reach the elections office in Arlington, Virginia, in time to be counted. His parents were told by that office that if it did not reach them by 5 p.m.. on election day it would not be counted. Thus, the election office is holding our service men and women overseas responsible for the behavior of the U.S. Postal Service.
There are two things wrong with this picture. This year there is a system for armed services personnel overseas to register online and, in a few states, to vote online. This was not universally publicized to all units and should have been — early. Also, the Department of Defense should have made an all-out effort with all 50 states to get them to accept online voting (with proper security). To the extent such an effort did not succeed, the DoD should have secured (by Act of Congress if necessary) to have overseas military ballots counted, provided they were postmarked, say, as late as five or seven days before the election day.
Should those working to finish the job of bringing peace and stability to Iraq be responsible for the efficiency of “snail mail”? No. Should ACORN be held responsible for all the fake registrations its workers have perpetrated on the election system? Yes.
About the Author
Peter Hannaford was closely associated for a number of years with the late President Reagan, beginning in the California Governor’s office. His latest book is Presidential Retreats.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (17) | Leave a comment
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Chicago| 11.3.08 @ 7:02AM
I served during the first Gulf War. US mail for military personnel is fast tracked by the USPS. if his ballot was delayed for a month, then something is not right!
the McCain camp should look into this. it's not surprising since military personnel are voting for McCain 3 to 1!
Grissie| 11.3.08 @ 8:41AM
The shocking, outrageous voting fraud in this election is unprecedented.
How dare this government, How dare the Federal Election Committee allow this to occur in the first place. ACORN has been a thorn in the side of this country for years. I thoroughly agree this radical, mismanaged mess be destroyed. The fact these run amuck ACORN managers have taken public funds (without our knowledge, through the earmarks of Democrats) then support one candidate is not only unlawful but wreaks of fraud. What does it take the entire country to be "Thrown under the Obama bus" before awakening occurs ? Sorry America by then it maybe to late. Wake Up People. You've been duped into the support of a charlatan and his posse of criminals funded by the Liberal left taking over the Senate and the House, while our brave, dedicated solidiers are denied the very freedom to vote they fight for. A disgusting, vile situation that needs to be remedied and those in violation jailed.
Missy5537| 11.3.08 @ 8:46AM
This is horrible. But we hear about this, and many ballot problems, EVERY FOUR YEARS! And it's not until September or so of the election year that people even start talking about voting problems, it seems.
Issues surrounding the military's vote should be given first priority. The rest of us probably wouldn't even be here at this point if it were not for them defending our country. Get their problems fixed first, and then move on to other areas of the country.
Anastasia Mather| 11.3.08 @ 8:56AM
My son applied for his absentee ballot while in Iraq SIX months ago! He never received it.
Thankfully, he is back home and is going to make a flying trip from Fort Drum home so he can vote and make it count.
Another lost vote for Obama.
EricTheRed | 11.3.08 @ 8:57AM
ACORN and those who excuse their illegal actions --including the mainstream media--would never care about the military vote not being counted. Nor would those who oppose voter I.D.'s and complain about "voter disenfranchisement."
They're all about getting Democrat votes, and to hell with the overwhelmingly Republican-supporting military. It's that simple. They are 100% result-oriented and 100% lacking in principle and rule of law.
If Obama loses the election tomorrow, get ready for these complete hypocrites to start sounding the alarm of voter fraud.
Such is the sorry state of our election process.
http://VocalMinority.typepad.com
Jewish and Republican?? Oy gevalt
Jeff| 11.3.08 @ 10:49AM
So what happens after mickey mouse is registered to vote? ACORN pays some seasonal election worker to fill his quota and that dumb worker submits fake registrations so he can get his paycheck without working the streets. Mickey Mouse can't go in and vote you know. Where are the fake votes getting into the system?
Grissie| 11.3.08 @ 11:23AM
Jeff
Amid the getting to school on time frenzy this AM I did hear of 17 votes they have identified as duplicates in the early voting. If I heard it right most were in PA and NC.
Thank You from my Heart, Chicago and Anastasia Mather for the service to our country
Jeff| 11.3.08 @ 12:46PM
Grissie, thanks for the update. At the same time, are any reports of voter fraud actually linked to acorn? It sucks because they are getting some funding from the government and it goes to people filling out fake registrations but at the same time I can't see the acorn issue as anything other than people on the street trying to game the system for money. What happens with acorn is essentially, they pay people to get them to submit a voter registration. That can be a worker who gets paid per person he registers, or like the example in the article, the young man who gets a dollar bill every time he stops by another acorn rep and fills out a voter registration.
From what I understand, you can do the same thing by just bypassing acorn entirely and filling out 50 fake registrations. But there's no incentive to do it, one because from what we can see, its relatively easy to weed out the fakes. And more importantly, even if you do get some fake registrations someone still needs to go and vote. One guy can't get in line at the same polling station 50 times with 50 different IDs.
Actually, I need to ask one more question that just came to me. Was it two actual attempts to vote or was it an attempt to register to vote in two different voting locations? Some people have been having problems changing their voting location because of heightened fears about election tampering.
aconservativeteacher | 11.3.08 @ 4:27PM
Interestingly enough, on my website I talked about this months ago as a possibility. Oddly enough, the country's largest postal workers union heavily endorses Obama, and I caught workers at my local US Postal Office wearing Obama buttons. And then you mention that they didn't send a ballot to your son in time? I'm not surprised.
David Lomax| 11.3.08 @ 9:04PM
Not just overseas. I live in NE Missouri, am on a civilian employer's job in Harlingen, TX. I called the county clerk last Tuesday and requested an absentee ballot be mailed to the hotel here in Texas. Tracy mailed it when she went to lunch that same day. It's now a week later and I'm still waiting...
How does the USPS lose an 11 x 14 big manilla envelope with OFFICIAL ELECTION BALLOT on it? I think I'd have better luck if I was in Al Asad.
CPO USNR SEABEES
Tom| 11.3.08 @ 10:39PM
Regarding incentive to register non-existent, dead or otherwise fraudulent voters, apparently what they do is have poll workers hang around after the polls have officially closed and then start filling out ballots for them. How they manage to do this with supposedly both republican and democrat judges around is something I don't understand.
psg3| 11.3.08 @ 10:51PM
Mail to APO or FPO addresses is delivered by the USPS to the millitary, who is then responsible for delivery. Before the 2004 elections several contractors proposed methods of improving mail delivery overseas, including express delivery of ballots (I worked on this), but the millitary was not interested. Mail processing within the USPS is mostly automated but the millitary does everything by hand.
Sandra| 11.4.08 @ 4:58AM
The DEMS lost me forever with the debacle in Florida.
If you can, go and vote today. i am not up at this early hour (4 am) packing my van to set-up the local polling place in a half an hour and spend 16-18 hours today (by the time polls close and all our ballots are tallied and turned in to the Board of Elections)
It's a LONG, long day for poll workers. We're here, come out and vote!!!
Ms. Know| 11.14.08 @ 11:11AM
This is sad that these voters can fake as if they're soldiers. The mainstream media should demand an apology from the liberal illuminati in honor of the real soldiers, our heros.