From a new web site, www.texasmilitaryvote.com
"Voting is a privilege guaranteed by our Constitution and ensured by our men and women in uniform. Yet, for far too many military personnel stationed away from home, it is difficult or even imposible to exercise their right to vote.
Nearly, 1,000,000 military and overseas absentee ballots were requested for the 2006 election , but only one-third of them were actually conunted. That means that more than 660,000 interested military voters were ultimately not able to have their voices heard. This is unacceptable.
We must protect the rights of our soldiers - and their families - to vote and have that vote counted. Help a loved one or firend make sure they are registered, their ballot application is processed, and their vote is delivered and counted. Democrat, Republican, Independent...party affiliation or personal views are irrelevant. We ought to make certain they are able to vote.
This web site is a portal to great information that will make it easier for our men and women n uniform to do taht which they have worked so hard to make so simple for the rest of us. They often put their lives on the line to guarantee the freedoms that makes this country exceptional, and they deserve every oportunity to exercise the basic right to vote themselves. Let's make certain they have exactly that.
God Bless our troops and the United States of America".
Senator John Cornyn is running for re-election in Texas. I support his re-election.
Other than putting up this web site in support of our country's military stationed overseas, he has also done the following to insure efforts to reform the current way that military votes are handled from overseas:
* Senator Cornyn introduced the Military Voting Protection Act of 2008. This reduces delays and cuts red tape.
* A reform measure to be successful in this ballot counting is for the Department of Defense to be required to collect and provide express shipping of ballots.
* Senator Cornyn sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey urging protection of military voting rights.
For too long, the military's right to cast a ballot from overseas assignments and have their votes be counted has been treated haphazardly at best. Whether intentionally or not, many votes of those serving our country in foreign lands, protecting our right to vote, have been ignored. It is way past time for this reform.
Thank you, Senator Cornyn.
Actually, a lot of Dems have opposed this, which is ironic considering that they fight for the right of convicts to vote. It may be even more ironic this year in that Obama, being black and given the high minority population in the military, has higher than normal support from the military. While I agree with you that I want all military personnel to vote, irregardless of their party affiliation, it would be no small irony if their low handed attempt to disenfranchise the military voters costed them votes.
ReplyDeleteJohn Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison both voted FOR the bailout last night.
ReplyDeleteToday I dropped my support of Sen Cornyn and his re-election to the post of Senator, and I sent the Cornyn campaign and Sen Cornyn himself an email letting them know, it can be read in the thread linked above.
In a very short time I was contaced by Vincent Harris, wanting my phone number, their campaign manager wanted to talk to me, and I told him NO, I could not, and would not support ANY candidate that voted to bailout $700B, a figure that is still low, actual figures are reported closer to $820B, and that I was pulling their logo from TexasFred's, The American Conservative and The Texas Connection, and I did.
Jimmy Kerr of But That's Just My Opinion posted a message in my comments saying he had done the same thing. Jimmy and I are trying to contact and encourage as many Texas bloggers as possible to contact Vincent and let him know that YOU are doing the same thing as well, lets send Cornyn a HUGE, Texas sized message!
Please, if you believe that this is a very important issue, PLEASE contact Vincent and tell him that you're dropping the logo too, and ask to be removed from their blog roll, no LINK is that important, request that your blog be taken OFF of their roll...
Contact Vincent here:
vincent@johncornyn.com
http://www.johncornyn.com
http://TexasFred.net/
Jimmy:
ReplyDeleteHi. I have a good relationship with Vincent and will be doing a post for Senator Cornyn concerning the rescue package vote. After careful thought, I have decided to do it and encourage others to think and act as they see fit.
I appreciate your opinion. I don't share it. I also plan to be very active in Kay Bailey Hutchinson's campaign for governor later.
Thanks for the visit and comment. You are welcome anytime.