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July 15, 2011
71% of Military Ballots not counted in the 2010 election. [ArthurK]
That's my worst case estimate based on this story. (I plead guilty to headline sensationalism)
Of the 2 million military voters covered by the report, 15.8 percent requested absentee ballots, but only 4.6 percent cast absentee ballots that were counted.
15.8% requested, 4.6% counted = 29% successful or 71% unsuccessful.
Most of the states did a good job counting the ballots they actually got back - the overall acceptance rate was more than 94 percent.
Looks like ballots aren't making it to the troops, they're not filling out the ones they get or the ballots aren't making it back to the states. From my personal experience, when I went to the trouble to request an absentee ballot, I always filled it out and sent it in. I don't
know what's going on here but forgive me if I suspect that there's voter supression in action.
... military voters were (28% as)* likely to vote than other voting-age citizens (in the 2010 election)
*innumeracy in linked article corrected.
That doesn't pass the smell test. Perhaps some currently or recently serving troops can enlighten me? Are you guys voting nowadays? (I have no idea how common absentee voting was back in the 1970s when I was in. We did follow the elections closely.)
The linked story also goes on to point out games states like Maryland and New York played to delay sending out ballots until it was too late to matter.
posted by Open Blogger at
04:17 PM
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