Pentagon fails to comply with law to help overseas soldiers vote, watchdog says

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Pentagon fails tocomply with law to help overseas soldiers vote, watchdog says

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·        The militaryservices haven't created offices on all overseas bases to help soldiers casttheir ballots, citing money shortagesUPDATED 23:53 PM EDT,SEPTEMBER 4, 2012 | BY JOHNSOLOMONWhy It Matters: Congress requiredthe Pentagon to create voting assistance offices on all overseas military basesto help deployed soldiers cast their ballots back in their home states, butmilitary branches haven't fully complied, citing budget shortages and adifference of opinion with lawmakers. With anotherelection lurking around the corner, the Pentagon is getting a bad review forits efforts to comply with a new law designed to make it easier for overseasmilitary personnel to cast their ballots.The Military andOverseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act was passed by Congress in 2009 and signedinto law by President Barack Obama and was supposed to make it easier for bothsoldiers deployed overseas and U.S. citizens living abroad to cast ballots backin their home states.One of the keyprovisions required each military branch to create an installation votingassistance office (IVAO) for every military base outside an immediate combatzone.But the Pentagon’sinspector general, the military’s internal watchdog, reported Tuesday it got adisappointing result when it tried to locate such voting assistance offices oneach installation earlier this year.“Results wereclear. Our attempts to contact IVAOs failed about 50 percent of the time,” theinspector general reported. “We concluded the Services had not established allthe IVAOs as intended by the MOVE Act because, among other issues, the fundingwas not available.”The Pentagonestimates it could cost $15 million to $20 million a year to create all the officesrequired by the law.In addition,Pentagon officials apparently disagree with the tactics the law recommended,preferring to use advertising and digital outreach efforts to educae overseassoldiers rather than creating the voting assistance offices.“DoD officials alsoposed concerns about IVAO effectiveness,” the inspector general reported. “Theynoted that younger military personnel were the biggest DoD military populationsegment and emphasized that IVAOs were likely not the most cost effective wayto reach out to them given their familiarity and general preference forcommunicating via on-line social media and obtaining information frominternetwebsites.“They suggestedassistance might be provided more effectively and efficiently by targetedadvertising,” the report noted.The inspectorgeneral recommended the Pentagon create better survey capabilities to identifythe voting needs of soldiers after the 2012 election and to work with Congressto change the parts of the law that it isn’t complying with.Pentagon officialssaid they agreed with both recommendations.You can read thefull report here.