Absentee Ballots

"Joe,

I'm not sure how all this Blogger stuff works. I was thinking about writing an editorial. Anyway to the point.

I have heard a lot the past couple days about Ohio and Florida with their hideous and outlandish efforts of getting people registered to vote and then on top of that to place an absentee ballot on the spot.

I understand that all people should have the right to vote, even if they happen to be homeless (However unlikely). The main thought here is if a person is to lazy to take them selves down to the post office or the MVA or any other government agency to register to vote. Then they likely won't vote anyway. Personally I can't understand not being registered to vote nor do I understand the philosophy of not voting at all.

When I was in the Navy I would always request an absentee ballot. I am not sure how the system is supposed to work, but I am quite sure that it did not work at all in my situation. Neither time did I request a ballot did I ever get anything back from the government or from Maryland (my state of residency at the time). I am sure that by the time the government agency gets the ballot and decides to do something with it the election is already over. (my opinion).

The point to all this is, if there ever was an effort to get any group of people registered to vote it should be the servicemen and women of our Armed Forces. My own experiences lead me to believe that there is a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done to bring that segment of the voting population up to par. Now I will account for the fact that was more than 15 years ago and yes times may have indeed changed. Still the fact remains if there is a group that should be "catered" to for voting registration it should be our Armed Forces.

Regards,
Clifford Alpert"