National Defense Authorization Act For Fiscal Year 2010--Continued

Floor Speech

NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2010--Continued -- (Senate - July 22, 2009)

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I want to speak briefly about a very important amendment, amendment No. 1725, which I think will help us restore the franchise, the vote, to our deployed military overseas. This is a bipartisan amendment. The lead sponsors are Senator CHUCK SCHUMER and Senator BOB BENNETT, the chairman and ranking member of the Rules Committee, but this builds on the work Senator Begich and I, Senator Chambliss, and others have put into this effort to address what can only be described as a national disgrace.

Our military service members put their lives on the line to protect our rights and our freedoms. Yet many of them still face substantial roadblocks
when it comes to something as simple as casting their ballots and participating in our national elections. Sadly, this is not a new problem. President Truman urged Congress to address obstacles to voting faced by troops serving in Korea. Today, however, troops deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq face many of the same problems.

In 2006, less than half of the military voters who requested absentee ballots were successful in casting them, according to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.

In 2008, those problems continued. More than a quarter of the ballots requested by uniformed and overseas voters went either uncollected or uncounted, according to a recent survey of seven States with high military voting populations.

In a soon to be released study of the 2008 cycle which looked at 20 States with large military populations, the Heritage Foundation has concluded that as many as three-quarters of our troops and their family members were ``disenfranchised by their inability to request an absentee ballot'' and that as many as one-third of the ballots that were requested never reached the appropriate election officials to be counted.

Voting has remained a challenge for our troops and their families for many reasons. First, our election laws are complex and multiple levels of government are involved. Election challenges and other unforeseen events can delay the finalization of ballots. The high tempo of military operations often requires frequent deployments for our troops and their families.

Let me describe what this amendment, which I hope we will adopt later today, does.

Our legislation addresses several of the biggest roadblocks our troops and their families face when attempting to vote. First, this legislation will provide voter assistance services to every service member and family member upon transfer to a new military installation. As part of each installation's in-processing, every service member will now be offered an opportunity to fill out a simple form the Department of Defense will return to the appropriate election officials. That form will update the address on file with election officials and request absentee ballots for the next Federal election cycle. These voter assistance services will give our military personnel some of the support that civilians now enjoy through motor voter laws.

Second, this legislation reduces the reliance on snail male for correspondence between troops and their election officials. Under current election laws, many troops must mail a request for an absentee ballot, then wait for the election officials to mail them the blank ballot, and then to return the completed ballot in time to be counted. This legislation requires elections officials to create electronic blank ballots and to post them online. Election officials must also accept faxes and e-mails to expedite correspondence with our troops.

Together, these reforms will reduce dependence on snail mail until the service member is ready to return the completed ballot to be counted.

Third, this legislation will expedite the return of the completed ballot to election officials. Under current law, each servicemember is responsible for making sure his or her ballot is postmarked and returned on time. This legislation requires the Department of Defense to take possession of completed ballots and ensure that they get to election officials on time by using Express Mail, if necessary.

This legislation also requires election officials to give our troops 45 days, at least, to return their ballots.

This important amendment contains many other commonsense reforms suggested by other Senators and will help end the effective disenfranchisement of our troops and their families. Our goal has been to balance responsibilities between elections officials and the Department of Defense, and I believe this amendment accomplishes that goal.

As I said, this amendment would not be in its current posture without the leadership of Senator Schumer and Senator Bennett. And I appreciate them working to include two pieces of legislation I introduced earlier this year, something called the Military Voting Protection Act, which, just this weekend was unanimously endorsed by the National Association of Secretaries of State, and a second piece of legislation called the Military Voters' Equal Access to Registration Act. These two pieces of legislation have received broad bipartisan support from the beginning, including Senators BEGICH, INHOFE, WYDEN, VITTER, and HUTCHISON. We have also worked closely with leaders in the House of Representatives, especially Congressmen KEVIN MCCARTHY and DUNCAN HUNTER.

All of our work was not done in Washington. We relied on support and technical assistance from the Texas Secretary of State's Office, especially our Director of Elections, Ann McGeehan, dozens of military support organizations and veterans service organizations, and many other citizens and patriots who want our troops to enjoy their right to vote--that it be protected, particularly for those who defend all of us.

I urge all of our colleagues to support this amendment when it comes to the Senate floor, I hope, later on today, and to give this important amendment our unanimous consent.

I yield the floor.

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