Visit our website now: http://www.billstill.com for the unvarnished truth about Washington and today’s United States Political Climate. Good morning, I’m still reporting on Good evening, I’m still reporting on Still Report #1220– Will President Obama Suppress Military Vote Again? http:// www.billstill.com/ I just got in a letter from Jane Smith (name changed to protect the innocent). She was just informed by her husband who is deployed overseas that they have not yet received their absentee ballots again this year. “Their ballots must be postmarked by 11 Oct. 2016 or they will not be counted. This has happened before and it appears it is happening again. “Again, some low-level clerical error will be blamed and the nation will again simply shrug it off.” The heartbreaking absurdity of this story is that Jane is actually afraid of complaining about her husband not getting to vote. Everyone in the service is afraid of losing their jobs due to ongoing massive layoffs under the current administration. But to be in fear of complaining about not getting to vote in this, the most important presidential election in our history? Is this even America anymore? As Jane said, this problem is nothing new, but the last story on this issue that I could find was a Washington Post story dated, 11 Nov. 2015 – thirteen months ago. Since President Obama’s first election in 2008, the record of military voter suppression has been horrifying. For example, Minnesota is the state which prides itself on typically having the nation’s highest voter participation rate. Voter turnout in the 2008 presidential election was 78.2%. However, among military members and their families, it was a mere 15.8%. To make matters worse, Minnesota military voters – casting their votes by absentee ballot – had their ballots rejected a whopping 70% of the time, as compared to a 10% rejection rate for the general population. According to a 2010 story in Heritage.org, Legal Memorandum #45, by Hans A. von Spakovsky of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies: “Said another way, nearly 80 to 85 percent of military voters were unable to cast an absentee ballot that counted during the 2008 presidential election….” So, Congress to the rescue. In 2009, Congress passed the Military and Overseas Voting Empowerment (MOVE) Act of 2009. According to the Washington Post article of 11 November, 2005: “States were required to change their election laws to ensure that overseas military personnel could register to vote and request ballots electronically. Additionally, states were required to have ballots ready to mail at least 45 days before an election to ensure enough time to return the ballot to be counted.” So that fixed it for the 2012 vote, right? Wrong! As a result of the 2009 MOVE Act, voting assistance offices were to be built at most military bases. However, only half were ever funded - in defiance of the law. According to a 5 November, 2012 story in the Washington Times by Ned Ryun: “The explanation? The Obama administration by way of the Pentagon blamed a lack of funds for their failure to comply with the law. “We can afford to send $2 billion to the Egyptian government, run by the radical Muslim Brotherhood — whose president has recently called for the destruction of Israel — but we can’t fund efforts allowing our own soldiers to vote?” “It’s a national disgrace. Worse, the facts make us wonder if it is intentional. After all, members of the military vote overwhelmingly Republican.” On top of that, in Nov. 2012 when the key swing state of Ohio extended military voting by three days, the Obama campaign sued the state. The lawsuit said that the extension was “arbitrary” and had “no discernible rational basis.” In the end, according to the Washington Post story, in 2012, some 250,000 military voters did not get their votes in on time to be counted. And today, it’s happening again. Have the states sent out their military absentee ballots? Because as of today, it is only 41 days until election day. According to the chief of operations for the Military Postal Service Agency (MPSA) as quoted in the Heritage.org piece: “… it takes at least 36 days of mail time (18 days each way) for a ballot to be sent to and from a war zone and some additional amount of time to account for military exigencies.” However 8 typically-blue states refuse to follow the 45-day standard: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire and Vermont. Consider becoming a cherished sponsor: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=3204630 https://youtu.be/l-4bBDfLeSM