House bill would ensure overseas military ballots are counted

Several House members planned Tuesday to introduce a bill they said would help guarantee that ballots cast by overseas military personnel and their families would be counted. The bill--by Reps. Mac Thornberry and Sam Johnson, both R- Texas, Randy (Duke) Cunningham, R-Calif., and Ellen Tauscher, D- Calif.--follows last year's Florida presidential election controversy, which highlighted problems associated with counting ballots cast by military personnel. Each state has different standards and deadlines for requesting and returning absentee ballots. Sponsors said their bill would guarantee residency for military personnel in all federal, state and local elections; establish a standard, 30-day time frame for receiving and returning ballots; require states to find clear and convincing evidence of fraud before disqualifying a vote in federal elections; and make it easier for members of the military and their families to obtain absentee ballots with a single request. "Our troops and their families put their lives on the line, and sometimes on hold, to defend the freedom of this great nation," Johnson said. "The least we can do is defend their freedom to vote." The bill would also expand a pilot program that would allow more military members and their families to vote electronically in the 2002 general election.