(CNSNews.com) - A memorandum by Defense Secretary William Cohen to the Pentagon's inspector general directing him to review the way the military handles absentee ballots from troops stationed abroad "is hollow if [Cohen] doesn't do anything about the current controversy," a leading defense commentator said.
"It isn't a matter of military members being denied the right to vote. What's at issue is whether or not their vote is counted," said Elaine Donnelly, director of the Center for Military Readiness.
Donnelly called on Cohen to "affirm very clearly how the postal system in the Defense Department operates" and to assert that the 1,500 votes cast by service members in Florida from overseas that were thrown out by elections officials for lack of postmark, should be regarded as valid.
As long as the Pentagon makes sure safeguards were in effect to avoid duplication and possible fraud, the votes should be counted, she said.
"If you have a name on the ballot and it's signed and dated, it's a relatively easy matter in a contested election like this to track that voter down. Or to ascertain there is a voter on the USS Tarawa, for example, and that the mailbag did leave on such-and-such a date and that there were no postmarks," Donnelly said.
Cohen ordered an internal review Tuesday of the way the military handles absentee ballots from troops stationed abroad. This after the battle between President-elect George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore for Florida's 25 electoral votes highlighted flaws in postmarking procedures in the military and in the U.S. Post Office.
"The last thing we want to do is to make it harder for those who are wearing the uniform of the United States of America and serving overseas to cast a ballot," Cohen said in a memo to Donald Mancuso, the acting Pentagon inspector general.
Military ballots are mailed postage-free, similar to franked mail on Capitol Hill, and frequently they are not postmarked, Pentagon officials said. But election officials used the absence of postmarks as a reason to disqualify hundreds of votes, possibly depriving Bush of a larger margin in Florida. Historically, military voters have favored Republican presidential candidates by margins of almost 2-to-1.
Several members of Congress, including Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Stephen Buyer (R-Ind.), chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Personnel, said discarding military votes was "a blatant violation of federal law." However, they also urged the Defense Department to investigate military ballot procedures.
A Bush spokeswoman welcomed Cohen's action, but said something should be done to clarify the current situation.
"This is a good move for the future," Mindy Tucker told the LA Times. "But we need something to rectify votes cast in this election."
Donnelly reserved her harshest criticism for Gore, who she said was "demoralizing the troops" by working through lawyers to have their votes discarded. "It makes a mockery of his mantra, 'Why shouldn't we count all the votes?' These are votes that have never been counted. It's another slap in the face to the military."