Half of all U.S. military bases around the world lack legally required facilities where troops can register to vote and get absentee ballots, according to a report from the Pentagon’s inspector general.

Advocacy groups said the report shows the military has let down its service members by failing to implement the 2009 Military & Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act...

Under the MOVE Act, all military installations are required to have a voting-assistance office, which, like the “motor voter” offices at departments of motor vehicles, offer individuals the opportunity to register and ask them to sign a form if they decline. The law said the offices should be open by 2010.

When investigators from the inspector general’s office attempted to contact the offices at the military’s 229 bases overseas, they were able reach just 114 -- fewer than half.

One of the authors of the act, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), is sending a letter to Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta this week to ask him to personally intervene, according to his office.

“With great disappointment, we have concluded that the Department of Defense stands in clear violation of a central provision of this federal law,” the letter says, according to extracts provided to The Washington Times. “The price of the [department’s] failure to follow the law will likely be paid this November by military service members and their families.”

The House Armed Services Committee will hold a hearing on the issue Sept. 13, a committee staffer said. State elections officials are due to send out absentee ballots by Sept. 22, Eric Eversole, founder of the Military Voter Protection Project, said.

Pentagon officials blamed a lack of resources for the failure to establish the voting offices, according to the inspector general report.

“We concluded the services had not established all the [voting-assistance offices] as intended by the [MOVE Act] because, among other issues, the funding was not available,” reads the report, published last week but first reported Wednesday.

The report said Congress failed to authorize additional funding to implement the MOVE Act and added that Pentagon officials estimate the costs of establishing the offices could exceed $20 million per year.

But Mr. Eversole said Congress had appropriated $75 million over the past three years for military voter assistance efforts. “The notion that they didn’t have the money to do this, that’s laughable,” he said.

READ FULL SOURCE ARTICLE

Editor's Note: Unacceptable...


The BasicsProject.org informational and educational pamphlet series is now available for Kindle and iPad. Click here to find out more...

The New Media Journal and BasicsProject.org are not funded by outside sources. We exist exclusively on tax deductible donations from our readers and contributors. Please make a tax deductible donation today.