Military votes Rep. Bill Thomas, California Republican, is criticizing Senate Democrats for holding up his bill to allow polling places on domestic military bases. His efforts are attracting return fire from Democrats and some military people for his opposition each year to the Military Voting Rights Act inserted in the defense-authorization bill. Sponsored by Sen. Phil Gramm, Texas Republican, the act would prohibit states from withdrawing residency rights from service members away on orders. It would also reinforce a federal mandate to states to accept overseas military ballots. Mr. Thomas tells us it is not inconsistent for him to back his own military-voting bill, while opposing another.
Every state already does that. . . .
The vast majority in the House and Senate agree with me. What this would be is a federal intervention in elections that has never been done before. The Senate and House Armed Services committees plan hearings next year on the Pentagon's system of collecting and delivering absentee ballots overseas. In Florida, Democratic Party attorneys challenged scores of ballots on grounds they lacked a postmark, a requirement in some states for the ballot to count as a legal vote. The Pentagon later said many envelops miss getting stamped because of postage-free delivery.