National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2010

Floor Speech

NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010 -- (Senate - July 23, 2009)

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Mr. SCHUMER. I ask unanimous consent to set aside the pending amendment so we can call up amendment No. 1764.

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Mr. SCHUMER. I rise to talk about Amendment No. 1764, called the MOVE Act, The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act of 2009. I first wish to thank my colleague, Senator Bennett, for his hard work. He was indispensable in getting this done, as were Senator Chambliss and Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Senator Cornyn, who had previous legislation that was similar. I also wish to thank the Chairman, Senator Levin, as well as Senator McCain, for helping us.

The MOVE Act is a bipartisanship solution to a serious, yet all too familiar, problem. The bottom line is, our soldiers overseas have a very difficult time in voting. With the MOVE Act, with 58 cosponsors, we can tackle this problem head on and make voting for our military overseas men and women easier.

We chaired a hearing in the Rules Committee that brought up the problems, and they are shocking. The bottom line is very simple. If you are in the military, it is very difficult to comply with State registration laws. You have to go through two post offices, military mail, and then the regular post office. There is no availability of notaries. Many States require notaries.

There is also the problem, of course, that you have to do everything, by many State laws, by mail. And the mail takes forever when you are overseas.

Couple that with the fact that for absentee voting, which by definition these voters have to use, there are serious deadlines. All too often our soldiers get their absentee ballot after the deadline has passed to send them in. All too often, even more frequently, the voting ballot does not arrive by the deadline the State has set.

So these are serious problems. The bottom line is, with technology, they all could be overcome. We have faxes, we have e-mails, we have computers, and we do not use them for our soldiers overseas. They can risk their lives for us, we can at least allow them to vote. They take orders from the Commander in Chief. They are the first people who ought to be allowed to elect and vote for a Commander in Chief.

If we can deploy tanks and high-tech equipment and food to the frontlines, we can figure out a way to deliver ballots to our troops so they can be returned and counted. That is what the MOVE Act does, correcting the many
flaws that riddle absentee ballots for overseas voting.

The numbers are very troubling. More than a quarter of all ballots either come in too late or are not counted. That is a serious problem. When our soldiers who have so much else on their minds go out of their way to get the absentee ballot cast, then it is not counted. That is frustrating. That is wrong. That is not American.

So our bill--and the details are available in the RECORD--deals with that issue. One soldier sent to the Overseas Vote Foundation a letter which said: ``I hate that because of my military service from overseas, I was precluded from voting.''

That soldier continues: ``Of all people, deployed servicemembers should have a guaranteed ability to vote.'' That sums it up. That sums it up.

The MOVE Act will ensure it by allowing ballots to be sent electronically, dealing with the time gaps and all the other problems we face. It is bipartisan. Again, both Senator Bennett and I on the Rules Committee support it. Senator Chambliss and Senator Ben Nelson, who have done such a good job, are the cosponsors of this legislation. We can finally solve this problem, which is unacceptable, by moving this legislation.

I ask my colleagues, how can a marine in Fallujah find a notary? Why are we making things so hard? How can somebody who goes out of his or her way to cast a ballot have that ballot not counted? This legislation solves the problem in a fair, measured way that is cognizant of the rights of States to set the voting laws as they wish. I hope we will have unanimous support.

I yield the floor.

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