January 03, 2010 | NEWS ARTICLES
New Policy Designed to Boost Military Voting
By Daniel Carson | News Herald | Link to article
A new Department of Defense policy will make voter registration easier for U.S. service members stationed at Tyndall Air Force Base and Naval Support Activity Panama City, as well as military personnel at all other U.S. military installations worldwide.
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-NY, and Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, requested the DOD be required to provide voter registration materials and assistance at all U.S. military bases.
A statement on Schumer’s Web site said the new policy would turn U.S. bases into “one-stop shops” similar to state-run motor vehicle branches.
With the policy change, Schumer said the Pentagon would be required to offer voter registration forms at the time of each service member’s entry into active duty, transfer from one duty station to another, overseas deployment and on a standing basis.
The DOD would assist service members in submitting the registration forms to states.
Lt. John Skaggs, NSA PC’s voting assistance officer, said the policy change wouldn’t result in much of a change for NSA PC or its individual commands
Skaggs said the Navy base already has a check in process for incoming sailors that includes a visit with a voting officer.
He said NSA PC passes out voting information to the sailors, including a sheet from the Federal Voting Assistance Program with frequently asked voter registration questions.
“We ensure that they feel comfortable in what they’re doing,” Skaggs said, adding, “We usually aren’t the first command for most of these sailors,”
The Air Force Personnel Center Web site includes a page dedicated to helping airmen with their voting and absentee ballot questions.
According to the site, all military installations have assigned voting action officers to assist personnel and their families.
Within NSA PC, there are 18 individual commands on base, he said.
Skaggs said each command has its own voting assistance officer, and the Navy sends out a Navy-wide survey after national elections to estimate how many sailors voted.
He said all branches of the military were making a push to get their personnel registered to vote ahead of the 2010 elections.
