[I can be a watchman when it comes to the military and veterans because I served honorably in the Armed Forces, too. When politicians do not support our military and those who were willing to die for this country — they don’t deserve the military/veteran vote either.]

It also does not help to know that Mitt Romney dodged the Vietnam War draft 4 times and I consider him a ‘yellow’ belly.

This is just in from VOTEVETS.ORG:

By Amanda Terkel  |  Huffington Post  |  View story in the original context
PUBLISHED: October 03, 2012

On Monday, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s campaign sent Wisconsin officials a letter expressing concern that the state is not doing enough to make sure that military members serving overseas will have their votes counted.

“I am writing to express my concern regarding your office’s attention to the voting rights of men and women in uniform, and to urge you to take immediate action to correct recent violations of military voting rights,” wrote former Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi, who is the national chair of the Veterans and Military Families for Romney Coalition. The letter was sent to David Deininger, chair of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB).

At issue is a federal law — the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act (UOCAVA) — that requires election officials to send absentee ballots to military voters at least 45 days before a federal election.

“In this election cycle, your office was required to ensure the transmission of absentee ballots to military voters no later than September 22, 2012. According to your office’s records, however, at least 30 Wisconsin municipalities under your supervision failed to transmit ballots to UOCAVA voters by the 45-day deadline,” Principi wrote in the letter, which was obtained by WisPolitics.com.

Sending ballots to overseas citizens and giving them time to vote and mail back their ballots takes time, hence the 45-day period. The Romney campaign is worried that without that full window, military members may not have their votes counted in time.

“It takes a long time to get the ballots overseas,” Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams told The Huffington Post. “Many times, members of our armed forces are on a mission that would require them to be away from their mail facility for several days. Sometimes they move around from different bases or different facilities. Of course, the ballot would have to catch up with them. So that 45-day window is critical.”

In his letter, Principi requested that the Wisconsin GAB immediately make sure servicemembers receive their ballots and extend the deadline by which election officials must receive the completed ballots.

Williams said the campaign has not yet received a response to the letter.

GAB spokesman Reid Magney disputed that the problem was as serious as Principi’s letter made it seem. He told HuffPost that, of the 4,288 military and overseas Wisconsin voters who requested absentee ballots, only 44 were not sent their ballots on time.

“Of the 44 sent late, all but six ballots were sent out in time for there to be 45 days of transit time (from the day sent to the last day for return the Friday after the election),” he added. “Of the six, five were emailed to the voters, so they received them immediately. The sixth voter is in basic training in Georgia, and his ballot was sent to him by mail on October 1. He did not have an email address. He also received information about how to use the new MyVote.WI.gov site to receive an absentee ballot immediately online.”

Regarding the Romney campaign’s request to extend the deadline, Magney said that would need to be done through a court order.

When asked for comment on the situation in Wisconsin, an Obama campaign spokesman said, “We absolutely support extensions that will allow our men and women serving this country to exercise the freedoms they protect and ensure their vote counts. We believe that everyone eligible to vote should be able to vote.”  FULL STORY HERE>>>

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 9th, 2012 at 8:56 am and is filed under 2012 Presidential elections, American GI Forum, Foreign military affairs, veteran voters. Tags for this post: as it tries to shut out military/veteran votes in Ohio., foreign affairs, GOP and voter suppression, make ohio military and veteran votes count!, republicans and romney trying to suppress military vote, Romney campaign worries about Wisconsin military absentee ballots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.