By WRBL Staff
Media General News Service
WASHINGTON - Many soldiers in Iraq may not get a say in choosing the presidential candidates for next November's ballot. Media General News Service
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Stumble It!Same goes for the troops in Afghanistan and U.S. expatriates living and working overseas.
Blame the crush of early presidential primaries.
"It makes it nearly impossible for service members and people overseas to vote" in the coming primaries, said Sam Wright, director of the Military Voting Rights Project.
Many primaries will be weeks or months earlier than in 2004. In the rush to be first, some states have pushed voting well into January.
No longer are Iowa's caucuses and New Hampshire's primary alone at the front of the primary calendar. South Carolina and Florida also are holding January primaries.
In all, 28 states have primaries in January or February.
That means earlier deadlines for voter registration and absentee ballot requests. New voters in some states may need to register no later than November.
"The earlier you move up the primary, the greater the risk they won't get the ballots," said Scott Silliman, a Duke University professor who tracks military voting issues.
The razor-thin margin of the 2000 presidential election results highlighted the importance of overseas votes.
In states like Florida and Virginia, with tens of thousands of service members, the military vote could make the difference in close races.
Pauline Brunelli, director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, urged military voters to start now to make sure their votes count.
"If they are registering (to vote) or requesting a ballot, do it now," she said.
To ensure overseas voters receive absentee ballots and mail them back in time, many local election offices will send out ballots in December.
"They're going to be competing with the Christmas mail rush," said Florida Secretary of State spokesman Sterling Ivey.
Florida absentee ballots to overseas voters must be in the mail no later than Dec. 25, he said. To be counted, ballots from overseas voters must arrive back at local election offices no later than 10 days after the primary. Other states require completed absentee ballots to arrive by primary election day.
Early voting will create uncertainty for absentee voters mailing ballots from overseas, said Thad Hall, who studies military voting at the University of Utah.
"Many (soldiers) will be voting around Christmastime," Hall said. "And, many may be casting meaningless ballots because candidates will be dropping out."
E-mail James W. Crawley, national correspondent for Media General News Service, at jcrawley@mediageneral.com.
