"Political games" kill military voting bill in Alabama
May 19th, 2009 by BrokeSnake
Greetings to you readers of this fine blog. I hope that I can bring something to this project that adds up to something other than epic failure. So, here goes…
In my home state of "Sweet Home" Alabama, we allowed "political games" to impact the inherent rights of military voters. You see, 2010 is a huge election year all over the country, and Alabama has one heck of a Governor's race shaping up. Well, the all too important ramp up to the campaign season took a swing and connected on a piece of legislation that was "aimed at helping soldiers overseas vote electronically in elections." The Alabama House passed the bill, then "the Senate added an unrelated provision to prohibit a federal campaign from giving to a state race."
Alabama was poised to be one of the first states in the nation to implement an innovative process for military and overseas voters to participate in elections
The bill would have established a 23-member Alabama Electronic Overseas Voting Advisory Committee to assist the secretary of state in the establishment, testing and implementation of absentee overseas balloting by secure electronic means.
I suppose this is in line with the practice of inserting "earmarks" into legislation, which I strongly oppose because most times the earmarks that get a bill killed are unrelated in any way to the overall purpose of the legislation in the first place. We see it all the time in the US Congress and most of us remember the firestorm from a few months ago when thousands of earmarks were inserted into the President's budget.
In the end, I thought this audience would want to be informed by yet more earmarks that are harming the rights of our military family. As a citizen of the State of Alabama, let me be the first to apologize.
Posted in Military Perspective
[...] "Political games" kill military voting bill in Alabama [...]
I'm not sure why you think 2010 would be any more important then any other race. I'm looking into this, as I don't see why it was killed. NY State has had several E-Voting ititiatives that have gotten clobbered for good reason because of not having an adequet audit trail.
NY-David
2010, because that is the next Governor's election which is the reason the "earmark" was placed on this piece of legislation. The bill breezed through the House, then once in the Senate, additional language was attached that had nothing to do with any program about overseas military voting. State Sen. Roger Bedford is highly rumored to be considering a run for Governor in 2010 and was peeved that US Congressman, Artur Davis was a leg up on fundraising for the Governor's race.
Hello… It's nice to get YOUR perspective on this as this exact issue is what our non-partisan, non-profit group Count US In was created to address. We carried this news on our website and we twittered (@militaryvote) on it to draw attention to this important issue. Thank YOU for bringing it to your reader's attention as well.
Lizz Egan
Count US In
http://www.countusin.us
@militaryvote
militaryvote.blogpsot.com
Guys , this bill was killed by one selfish stste senator who used his power to politicize the bill in the last waning days of the session . His name is Roger bedord , democrat from NW Alabama….You may want to google him and see the Mobile Press registereditorial and other articles …..As a member of the House Constitution & Elections Committee who worked hard on this bill for two years , I am equally outraged. There will be aprice for this . I apologize to our soldiers who deserve better. Please contact your brothers and sisiters in NW Alabama and let them know you are outraged at Senator bedford…..Rep. Barry Mask ( R ) Wetumpka , Alabama 31st District House of Reps. barry.mask@alhouse.gov