Photo By Staff Sgt. Jordan Sivayavirojna | Soldiers assigned to Task Force Orion, 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, New York...... read more read more
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GRAFENWOEHR, Germany – New York Army National Guard Soldiers stationed in Germany are still casting their votes in the state's local, congressional and gubernatorial election, thanks to the Army's efforts to make absentee voting easy.
The Soldiers, assigned to Task Force Orion of the 27th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, are deployed to Germany in support of the training of Ukrainian military personnel with other NATO military elements as part of the Joint Multi-National Training Group-Ukraine.
Absentee voting allows uniformed service members, their families, and citizens residing outside the United States to register, vote, and update contact information with their local boards of election. It’s a tradition that dates back more than 150 years.
The first absentee ballots in United States history were afforded to service members during the Civil War in the election of 1864.
. Originally, only the state of Pennsylvania granted Soldiers absentee voting rights. This changed to a nation-wide practice when Union Soldiers were deployed far from home and wanted their opinions to be heard.
“I think that was a pivotal moment in American history,” said U.S. Army Lt. Zachary Dean, a military intelligence officer assigned to Task Force Orion. “It's an honor to be able to be here on deployment and exercise my right to vote as they did.”
Deployed National Guard units assign the task of “Voting Assistance Officer” as an additional duty to one of their deployed Soldiers.
For Task Force Orion, it was the additional duty of Capt. Alex Hammond, an adjutant general officer.
Hammond ensured Dean and his fellow Soldiers were supplied with the federal Standard Form 76, "Federal Post Card Application (FPCA)," with which Soldiers request an absentee ballot.
Using the application, Soldiers indicated they are active duty uniformed service members serving overseas and filled in required personal information. Then, submitting the request was as simple as folding and sealing the form, and mailing it to their home county’s board of elections with pre-paid postage.
Some Soldiers utilized their county’s newly-implemented online process for Standard Form 76. Either way, ballots were then mailed directly to Soldiers at their deployed Army Post Office address.
“The absentee voting process was relatively easy,” said Dean. “I got my ballot pretty quickly and the turnaround time was a couple of weeks at most.”
Ballots received within the first two weeks of November are counted towards official tallies.
“It's important to vote because every vote counts, especially in local elections,” said Hammond. “At the local level, sometimes it comes down to one vote.”
| Date Taken: | 10.28.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 10.28.2022 07:56 |
| Story ID: | 432186 |
| Location: | GRAFENWOEHR, BAYERN, DE |
| Web Views: | 52 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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