Law Threatens Thousands of Military Votes

Get your dialing fingers ready folks and have at it. This cannot be allowed to happen to our military, not now, not ever. ......

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The Fairfax County Registrar—and possibly other Registrars in Virginia—is rejecting most Federal Write-in Absentee Ballots (FWAB) cast by our men and women in uniform.

The FWAB is a federally mandated write-in ballot that allows military servicemembers and their dependents to cast an absentee ballot when they have
not received a ballot before the election. It is a safety net that allows a servicemember to vote even if the mail truck hasn't reached his or her remote
base in Iraq or Afghanistan in time to cast a regular absentee ballot.

Why is the Fairfax Registrar rejecting these ballots? The Registrar states that the witness who signs the envelope containing the FWAB must include his or her address—but most of the ballots don't include the witness' address.

Virginia law does not require a witness address for any other type of absentee ballot. So, for example, a Virginia resident attending college out of state does not need to include her witness' address on her absentee ballot envelope. But the Fairfax County Registrar is holding servicemembers, including those currently defending their country in war zones, to a much more exacting standard, requiring the witnesses who sign their FWABs to include their address.

To make matters worse, the Federal form (SF-186A) that is used for the FWAB
does not have a space for witnesses to include their address. And the Department
of Defense's official Voting Assistance Guide, which it provides to servicemembers as an instruction manual for casting votes while overseas, does not tell servicemembers that they must include an address for their witness. The servicemember would thus have no way of knowing of this requirement.

Federal law does not allow this type of disparate treatment of servicemembers. The Uniform and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act (UOCAVA), 42 U.S.C. § 1973ff-2, requires states to process FWABs "in the manner provided by law for absentee ballots in the State involved." (emphasis added). In other words, the FWAB must be treated like any other absentee ballot under state law and may not be subject to more restrictive requirements. Yet that is precisely what is being done here.

Express your feelings to the state directly:

Virginia State Board of Elections

Suite 101, 200 North 9th Street,

Richmond,Virginia 23219-3485

Telephone: 804 864-8901

Toll Free: 800 552-9745

FAX: 804 371-0194

Also read here...http://www. military. com/news/article/law-threatens-thousands-of-military-votes. html?col=1186032310810

GO! NOW! This cannot stand. Thank you.

Check out The Gratitude Campaign

Now you do have the time to let them know how you feel.....

Cards for the Troops

Here are some of the cards I have gotten the past few days....I'm still sorting thru them all. Thank you Shell, Allison, Pattysue, Pamela.....

They're Proud to Serve

This was in our paper today.......
In Iraq, semper fidelis
Despite the public's waning support for the war, Marines' morale remains high.

and then I had this emailed to me & thought it was worth sharing.....
Groups Turning Against al-Qaeda and Joining Forces With Coalition


I never heard from 'the boy' today so not sure where he is tonite.

Have a good week everyone.

Email from Victor in Iraq from May 27th

May 27, 2007

Hello Everyone:
Thanks again to everyone for their prayers and support for ustroops here in Iraq/Afghanistan. It has been in the 100's (115-120degrees to be more exact) here in Baghdad. If you send any chocolate,make sure it is candy coated (M&Ms/Reeces Pieces) or they will notsurvive the trip. We got a couple of small water pistols and have beenplaying around with them. Water definitely makes the heat bearable.My Dad and brother are sending me a battery powered drill and saw. I amgoing to use them on a couple of projects. They should be handy when Igo to the scout area clean up in mid June (I don't think they have powerin that area). I should have plenty of cookies to give to the Iraqi GirlScouts for their fundraiser on 7 June. I am going to help with their baseball camp in early June. I don't know what kind of equipment theyhave and am considering June my green entry phase into the organization.They said I can take pictures of the events so by mid June, expect tosee some. I am also going to try to bring some things for these kidstoo. The Iraqi Scouts Green Zone Council has a website with a link with pictures. It is as follows: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/GZC_IraqiScouts We still struggle with our minimal staff and we still maintain a busy schedule. I still manage to get the med supplies ordered and picked up.The heat don't help with this effort either. Now that I got my forklift licenses, I won't have to wait for my pallets to get downloaded from thetruck. I will say it is nice to get out of the OR for a couple days eachweek to pick up supplies.They are letting the families stay a few more weeks. This will at leastallow the kids to finish the school year. Many families will also still remain here. They are the families of the Iraqi military members andgovernment officials (the ones in most danger).I thought I would send some pictures of my children today. They are allgetting so big and doing good.We are still hopeful for the safe return of the missing US Soldiers.Please keep them and their families in your prayers.
Thank You,
VICTOR

Email from Victor in Iraq from May 25th

I asked permission to reprint these as I thought other's might like to hear what other things are being done over there.....Hope you enjoy reading them. I will be posting them as received.

May 25, 2007

Hello Everyone:

The scouts meeting was pretty good. I did not realize how bigthe organization has gotten here. There are several councils throughoutIraq and they are going to try to send some of the scouts to the ScoutJamborie in the UK. Unless anybody minds, I was planning to give theIraqi girl scouts some of the cookies that have been sent to us. Theyare doing a cookie sale on the 7/8th of June. The proceeds go to thescouts. I am going to try to go to the clean-up detail at the scoutgrounds next month to see what the area looks like. They also have acouple of activity weeks lined up...of course they are during my workschedule. I have attached some more pictures from last week. Thanks againeveryone for sending things. 4th of July is coming up and the OR intends to win thedecorating contest. We have won every other contest and now everyone isgunning for us...especially after we took the commanders cup in lastmonths organizational day. I know its early, but if you see 4th Julydecorations or have excess, there is a place here for them. I hope everyone has a great summer. With the little extra moneyI'm making here, my wife and kids are going to Florida next month.Should be a great time for them and they deserve it. God Bless you all and take care.

Thank You,

VICTOR

Card Contest deadline coming up....& BLOG CANDY

Less than a week to go to enter Kyla's contest....they must be received by May 15th. Prizes are Gift Certificates for Stampin UP & eclectic paperie. Good luck to all entrants.

Make sure you check out my Other Blog....have been putting pictures up & make sure you try to win the blog candy.

Needing Father's Day cards right now....must send out by end of May. Also if you can get some cards to me by Monday for Armed Forces Day that would be greatly appreciated by me as well as the troops. Just a card with some words of encouragment & appreciation is all you need. Let me know you are sending em so I can hold off my shipment. Thanks

Another way to help with Cards for the Troops

More exciting news. Another wonderful person by the name of Laura O'Shea has made another offer to help out with the Cards for the Troops project. This will allow non-cardmakers an opportunity to help out. She makes cards to sell & has set it up to donate a card to the troops for each card sold. If you do not want to buy a card for yourself she will give a 20% discount for cards purchased to donate. Check out her site, Whirlpool of Imagination, for more information. This will go thru the month of May......hope you can help out.

Card Contest in Progress

EXCITING NEWS TO SHARE!!!
I got an email from Kyla Maestas (a Stampin' Up Demo from WY) telling me she not only wanted to participate in the Cards for Troops project but she wanted to know if it was ok to promote a contest to get more cards to send. Well what do you think I said?? YaHOO! The contest is officially started today & all the information you will need is on her blog, Kyla Maestas~Sweetwater Designs. RUN, RUN, RUN to go check it out. Good luck to all.

NO HALLMARK STORES IN IRAQ OR AFGHANISTAN!

I am a member of Operation Mom, a support group for families & friends of active duty servicemembers. My only son (our only child actually) is in the US ARMY. We send packages overseas to the troops (we get names from families & friends plus we have contact names over there who hand goodies out) & also put cards in the packages to them & for them to send home to their loved ones. Cards needed right now are All Occasion Cards (Happy Birthday, Thinking of You, Hello, Friend, Missing you & kids cards for them to send to their children at home) by end of June (next mailing will be end of September). These cards should be blank inside for the service member to write inside to their loved ones, must be with regular envelopes...back of card tucked into envie (no clear ones please) & if you do do dark paper please put light color insert so they can write on that. We always want Thank you cards from you TO the troops....with a personal note inside (thank you for your service, you are in my prayers, hope you come home to your loved ones soon, etc). Due to security issues these envelopes (envelopes are not required for the thank you cards to them if you don't want to put them in one) must be unsealed & if you would like a response (no guarantee on this as they are a bit busy over there but I did get 2 cards at Christmas & several emails this past mailing) you can put your return address on the envelope or include your email address inside (I have been getting emails). We can also always use Sympathy cards. This would be a great way to use the swap cards you accumulate. If you are interested in participating please email me with any questions you may have or to ask for the address to mail the cards to: pfcrensmom-cardsfortroops@yahoo.com (please don't disrespect the troops by using this email to send spam!). This will be a year round project. http://dddzstmpn.blogspot.com

Worth Watching - USA basketball Team

This is a stirring 4 minute video that is well worth the time to view.

Coach K was Bob Brown's coach at West Point prior to moving to Duke.

Recently, COL Bob Brown former Cdr of 1-/25 SBCT, and a few woundedsoldiers formerly under his command participated in a team building exercise with the US Olympic Men's basketball team. You'll be impressed.

Military faces growing ranks of bereaved families

Found this article in today's paper & thought I would share......something to think about.