New procedures will ensure absentee ballots count

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Patrick Murphy
  • Air Combat Command Public Affairs
LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. (AFPN) --  With the 2004 elections fast approaching, the handling of absentee ballots from overseas servicemembers is undergoing intense scrutiny. Air Combat Command's 82nd Communications Support Squadron postal flight is among the many organizations working to make sure these ballots arrive in the hands of election officials in time to be counted.

ACC is the managing authority for the U.S Central Command area of responsibility, where a majority of U.S. military forces are currently deployed. The 82nd CSS here is one of three postal units within the Air Force command structure trusted with management of mail. The 2nd Air Postal Squadron located at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and the Pacific Air Forces Air Postal Squadron at Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaii, are the other two.

"Military absentee ballots from overseas became a huge focal point in the 2000 presidential election," said Joseph Amaro, 82nd CSS postal operations transportation manager. "That election made us take a good, hard look at how the ballots were handled. New procedures are in place, and we believe the military overseas absentee ballots will be delivered as quickly as possible with very little controversy."

U.S. Postal Service officials have been working with the Military Postal Service Agency to improve the process, said 1st Lt. Scott Roberts, deputy flight commander of 82nd CSS postal operations flight. An Internet voting program known as the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment, or SERVE, had been proposed as a possible alternative. However, concerns that computer hackers could break into the system and effectively corrupt the votes forced Department of Defense officials to halt plans to use SERVE for this election. Officials still plan to continue researching Internet voting.

For now, a low-tech alternative is in place. USPS officials said they have asked their local postmasters to contact voting officials in counties and jurisdictions responsible for mailing ballots and to whom completed ballots are returned. They are asking those officials to pull out the military ballots.

Local postmasters then will take those ballots and sort them for three different USPS gateway cities: San Francisco for servicemembers based around the Pacific, including west coast Marines and Sailors deployed to the USCENTCOM area of responsibility; New York for Europe and the Middle East; and Miami for Central and South America, and a few units in the USCENTCOM area of responsibility. The balloting materials will go to these gateway cities via the USPS Express Mail service. Once at the USPS gateway facilities, postal managers will count the Express Mail pieces and sort them for the different military ZIP codes.

All the balloting materials will be sorted first into specially marked mail trays and handed over to the airlines, officials said. Airline workers will identify the trays that have voting materials, and those trays will again receive priority treatment. In theater, military postal workers can easily identify specially marked trays to ensure balloting materials are given priority as they travel to the servicemembers.

Once a servicemember votes, the reverse process is the same -- balloting materials receive priority, and ballots are placed in specially marked trays, officials said. One change from the 2000 election is that when ballots are received at the APO or FPO, mail clerks will sort all voting material and make it their highest priority for shipment back to the United States. Previously, voting material was treated as standard letter-class mail.

Military clerks will postmark the ballots with the date received in the military post office. This date is critical for election officials to be able to count the ballots. Once the ballots arrive from overseas at the USPS gateways, mail handlers will place them into the normal mail flow in the United States that allows for a three-day delivery.

USPS officials said they again will segregate balloting materials and use Express Mail to send ballots back to county officials beginning Oct. 30. Although Election Day is Nov. 2, these special-handling procedures will continue through Nov. 8. Despite this special attention, some ballots received after Election Day may not be counted, since different jurisdictions have different voting requirements. This is beyond military control as each state establishes its requirements independently.

The Federal Voting Assistance Program, which is managed by the Department of Defense, has established recommended mailing dates to help ensure the overseas military absentee ballots are counted. The final recommended date for requesting ballots is Aug. 15.

"The starting point for the whole process is the servicemember registering to vote and requesting an absentee ballot," said Michael Thuber, 82nd CSS postal operations plans and logistics manager.

DOD and USPS officials are designating the week beginning Oct. 11 as Overseas Voting Week. For those assigned to operations Iraqi Freedom or Enduring Freedom, the recommended date to return ballots is Oct. 11. For military members at other overseas locations, the recommended return date is Oct. 15.

"If people who wish to vote send their absentee ballots before these deadlines, the military and USPS will do all they can to ensure the ballots get to the county election officials before election day," Lieutenant Roberts said. "If you work with the plan and meet the deadlines, those votes will definitely be counted." (Courtesy of ACC News Service. American Forces Press Service and Air Force Print News contributed to this article.)