Three Republican Congress members claim the Pentagon is not supplying enough resources to facilitate service members' voting in the 2024 election.
In a letter Wednesday, Reps. Brian Mast and Mike Waltz of Florida and Bill Huizenga of Michigan to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin wrote: "Our nation's brave men and women in uniform brought to our attention that there has been inadequate education at the administrative level on how to register to vote, request an absentee ballot, and fill in a federal write-in absentee ballot if their state-issued ballot does not arrive in time.
"Other service members also stated that when a request for a federal write-in absentee ballot was made, they were told the base's stockpile of such ballots was depleted and had not been replenished."
Austin does not appear to have made any comments publicly to address the matter. Neither Austin's X account nor that of the Department of Defense have mentioned voting in the four days since the letter was written.
A Pentagon spokesperson told The Baltimore Sun that 3,000 designated voting assistant officers are assisting soldiers.
The voting assistant officers are there to "ensure that military voters understand their voting rights, how to register to vote absentee, and have access to voting information, materials, and assistance, regardless of their state of voting residence," the spokeperson said.
"In addition to designating voting assistance officers, every installation commander ensures voting assistance is included in the administrative in-processing, as well as pre- and post-deployment checklists required of reporting and detaching personnel."
Nick Koutsobinas ✉
Nick Koutsobinas, a Newsmax writer, has years of news reporting experience. A graduate from Missouri State University’s philosophy program, he focuses on exposing corruption and censorship.
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