Republican lawmakers are demanding answers from the Pentagon after military service members complained that they have not received enough absentee ballots to vote before Election Day.
Their Letter
On Friday, Reps. Mast (R-FL), Huizenga (R-MI), and Waltz (R-FL) sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Austin citing their “grave concern over deficiencies in the Defense Department’s protocols” for the U.S. military. They said the absentee ballot stockpile for our military has been “depleted and had not been replenished.”
The lawmakers also wrote that the Pentagon offered “inadequate education” on how service members can vote while deployed.
The Republicans demanded that the Pentagon take extraordinary measures to ensure that the nation’s elite military, like all American citizens, have an opportunity to vote in the upcoming election.
Biden-Harris Admin
Additionally, Mast called it unacceptable that the Biden-Harris Administration took no further steps to consider the country’s service members, and instead, it was considered an afterthought.
Mast said,
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have mobilized federal manpower, resources, and tax dollars to block state-level election integrity measures, including in Georgia and Virginia, through lawsuits and smears. They claim to care about democracy and the right to vote, yet they’ve failed to plan accordingly [1].
Military Overseas?
The incident comes after President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have refused to acknowledge that U.S. military members are serving overseas in combat. During a debate, Harris claimed that no active service members were on the battlefield.
Notes:
- ^ {The Pentagon Fails to Send Absentee Ballots to Active Military Service Members} (go back ↩)
