Obama Campaign Wages War on Troops

Filed under 2012 Election, Law, Politics
by Philip Hodges 



Overseas troops often find it difficult to vote. For one thing, they can’t just drop their rifle and mail in their ballot especially if they’re stationed in a war zone, which is pretty much the entire Middle East. And not only that, since every state has a different law regarding absentee ballots, filling them out properly can be confusing. And if they don’t arrive in the States in time, they can’t be legally counted. During the last presidential election, only 20 percent of a 2.5 million-member military were able to vote successfully by absentee ballot. Just two years ago, it dropped to 5 percent. This is why some states have laws that accommodate members of the military. Ohio has a law that allows three extra days for them to mail in their early voting ballots. The Obama campaign, the DNC and the Ohio Democratic Party have filed suit against Ohio because they say this law “disenfranchises” other voters and that it’s not “fair.”

Yes, the Obama campaign is just trying to make sure everything is fair. After all, they are all for a “fair” redistribution of wealth, and everybody paying their “fair” share of taxes; why not make sure that everybody gets their “fair” share of voting rights? Surely, they’re going to make sure that no illegal aliens try to vote, right? Because that certainly wouldn’t be fair. But does it really have anything to do with “fairness?” I think they’re just afraid that they might lose Ohio because of how overseas troops will vote.
Ohio is important because it’s a key battleground state. No Republican has won the presidency without winning Ohio. And traditionally, the military by and large vote republican. Obama is at a tremendous disadvantage with the military. A recent Gallup poll among veterans shows Obama trailing Romney 58 to 34 percent. In the key battleground state of Ohio, the military’s vote might make all the difference in the world. So, to increase his chances of victory, he’s trying to restrict the voting rights of those in the military.

That law is in place out of respect for those in the military who are serving the interests of this country. You’d think that the man responsible for sending young men and women off to fight his wars would want to show at least some gratitude for their service to this country. Those troops deserve to be able to vote in who they want sending them out to battles around the world. But the Obama campaign certainly doesn’t want to give them any extra time at all, because they know that members of the military, especially those serving overseas, might not like fighting in his “overseas contingency operations” or his “humanitarian missions,” and they would vote against him.
This isn’t the first time the democrats have fought against the troops. In the 2000 election, during the Florida recount debacle, democrats were able to influence local operators to reject over 1,500 ballots from overseas military members. Although the ballots were eventually reinstated after a lawsuit, it cast the democrats in a very negative light with the military.

The troops are Obama’s pawns that he gets to shift around on the “grand chessboard” as he pleases, and he knows that the troops don’t like being treated like pawns. So he is rightfully afraid that they will help vote him out of office given the chance. But suing Ohio for accommodating the troops will only backfire on him.