Our Nations service members and veteran’s fought to preserve a cherished right to vote but the Obama Administration has chosen to obstruct that right and not comply with federal law or even admit to tampering with the November 6 2012, Presidential election by suppressing the military absentee vote. Yet they continue their serial deception and “talk” of supporting the military at every campaign stop with rehashed rhetorical speeches of yesterday’s promises to the service members and their families.

On September 4 2012, DoD Inspector General (IG) released a disturbing report, which outlined approximately 224 installation’s Voter Assistance offices world-wide could not be contacted or were non operational. What is so troubling is nearly four years of lackadaisical care for our service members has passed away on top of the fact that a 2010 federal law mandates the military personnel overseas be given sufficient time to participate in elections plus all installations will maintain voting offices at installations to ensure direct support to all military casting any absentee ballots in local, State or Federal elections. On SEP. 13 2012, one of Georgia’s own, Congressman. Austin Scott (R-Ga.), in a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on military personnel, discussed the Inspector General report. Scott suggested the problem is with Obama administration priorities. It is evident that in nearly four years the Obama Administration has no desire or tolerance of military priorities or their right to vote. In effect the Obama Administration is telling the military…..‘We are writing off……Do not call us……..We will call you up when we need a sacrifice’.

Although current Rule-of- Law requires that absentee ballots be shipped to military voters overseas a minimum of 45 days prior to Election Day, tens of thousands of soldiers will receive their ballots too late again as was noted in 2010 election. After the 2010 midterm elections, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission released data showing less than half of the 119,000 overseas military votes cast were counted. In addition, approximately 2 million military and overseas voters accounted for in data reported by the states to the Election Assistance Commission; only 4.6 percent of the overall national voter participation rate for the 2010 election was 41.6 percent.

Why the concern? Well it is the law for one that is being ignored. Second, critical swing States such as Ohio is in play with nearly 9,700 military absentee ballots requested by overseas voters as of September 22nd. , down from over 32,000 in 2008 ballots cast.  In Virginia, nearly 12,300 military and overseas ballots were requested for this election cycle, which is reported to be less than 30 percent of the more than 41,700 absentee military and overseas cast four years ago. What is disturbing is the 2008 election already represented a low turnout in military voting, with about 54 percent of service members casting a ballot, compared with a 64 percent overall voter turnout.  Bottom-line, if service members do not have access to voting forms or personnel, you are in effect suppressing the vote.

Obama Administration knows the Military vote is leaning decisively to Romney-Ryan and it petrifies them to no end. A Rasmussen poll conducted in July 2012, noted that Governor Romney leads Obama 59 percent to 35 percent for Obama among likely voters with military service. So they concoct an Incremental Strategy of Taking the Military Vote Out Of the Fight. Recently, the Wall Street Journal, NBC and Marist polls have Romney with a lead of between 12 percentage points and 20 percentage points ahead of the Obama among veterans in the swing states of Ohio, Virginia, and Florida.

Perhaps Obama can explain why his re-election campaign (Obama for America), the Democrat National Committee and the Ohio Democrat Party sued Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted and the state’s Attorney General Mike DeWine in an attempt to suppress the military vote. The Democrat suit includes a ludicrous provision to allow military voters to cast their ballots during the last three days (Saturday, Sunday, and Monday). Good luck if you are overseas fighting for America. Still the Obama Administration denies it is suppressing the military vote, claiming it simply wants an even playing field for all…..what?  Get the ballots into the hands of the Military and sit back and watch how a playing field becomes even.

According to the Obama lawsuit, it is frivolous for Ohio to grant special concession to military voters – an acknowledgment of the difficulty soldiers deployed overseas often encounter in trying to get the military vote in on time – it is “arbitrary” and has “no discernible rational basis.” What? Veterans will remember these words and come out in droves to make up the for the deception they have become accustomed to from this Administration and make up for the service members they are marginalizing or unable to vote because they are deliberately cut-off from access to voting assistance. The Executive branch, along with the Administration’s appointed leadership at The Department of Defense (DoD), the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the disinformation political machine are all complicit in ensuring the military does not get their vote counted in the 2012 Presidential election.

Thus far fifteen military organizations have joined together to fight this particular Obama for America lawsuit against the military in court. Their honorable ranks include:

The Military Officers Association of America

The Reserve Officers Association

The Non Commissioned Officers Association of the U.S.A.

The National Guard Association of the United States

The Association of the U.S. Army

American Veterans (AMVETS)

The National Defense Committee

The U.S. Army Ranger Association, Inc.

The Special Forces Association

The Association of the U.S. Navy

The Marine Corps League

The National Association of the Uniformed Services

The Army Reserve Association

The Fleet Reserve Association

The Military Order of the World Wars

There are those that will say the military voting issue has existed long before the Obama Administration and they simply do not see any politics in play……well tell that to the “Obama for America” reelection campaign as well as the Democratic National Committee and the Ohio Democrat Party…………they are fighting a political rear guard action against our military service members.  According to the Ohio law suit, Obama is trampling on the rights of the military and disregarding the Rule-of-Law that demands military right to vote…………..shame on those who prevent or do nothing to ensure our service members get their right to vote guaranteed by the United States Constitution they swore to defend.   Have the Obama Administration explain that to Georgia’s nearly 900,000 and America’s 23,000,000 veteran men and women.

Colonel Lawrence G. Mrozinski (RET.) USA

GAGOP Veteran’s Outreach Chair