GOP Senators to Obama: Let Our Troops Vote

Six GOP Senators are asking Sec. of Defense Leon Panetta to intervene in what they see as the disenfranchisement of the military vote. The Senators are specifically asking Panetta to be sure U.S. military personnel overseas are allowed to register and vote in November’s election.

Senators John Cornyn (R-TX), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), John Barrasso (R-WY), Richard Burr (R-NC), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), and James Inhofe (R-OK) say Obama’s Department of Defense has failed to follow a law requiring it to set up voter-assistance offices on every U.S. base throughout the world. These voter-assistance offices are crucial because the persons working in them have knowledge of registration rules and absentee voting protocol for all 50 states. 

Without the offices to help, a soldier at war literally may not be able to do what has to be done in order to have his or her vote counted.

A Pentagon report released earlier last week indicated investigators had only been able to make contact with half of the voter-assistance offices at U.S. bases around the world. This has given rise to the fear that only half of our 229 bases are ready to be sure military votes are counted.