Republican lawmakers demand answers from the Pentagon after military service members complained that they have not received enough absentee ballots to vote before Election Day.
GOP Reps. Brian Mast (R-FL), Bill Huizenga (R-MI), and Mike Waltz (R-FL) sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin citing their “grave concern over deficiencies in the Defense Department’s protocols” for the U.S. military because they said the absentee ballot stockpile has been “depleted and had not been replenished.”
“Our nation’s brave men and women in uniform brought to our attention that there has been inadequate education at the administrative level on how to register to vote, request an absentee ballot, and fill in a federal write-in absentee ballot if their state-issued ballot does not arrive in time," the letter reads. “Other service members also stated that when a request for a federal write-in absentee ballot was made, they were told the base’s stockpile of such ballots was 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 warriors" have an opportunity to cast their vote in the upcoming election. However, with only three days until Election Day, lawmakers fear the government has not yet taken action.
Mast called it unacceptable that the Biden-Harris Administration took no further steps to consider the country’s service members, and instead, it was an afterthought.
“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,” Mast said in a press release. “They claim to care about democracy and the right to vote, yet they’ve failed to plan accordingly to facilitate the right to vote for every single one of our nation’s brave men and women in uniform. Our nation’s elite warriors deserve to have every opportunity to vote for the next commander-in-chief, especially since that person will be making life-and-death decisions for our troops.”
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.
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