can anyone point me to any numbers on the Military Vote?

[nashville_brook]

any final number posted anywhere? or any links to info in general. i'm on deadline, and it doesn't surprise me, but i'm not having any luck finding anything.

[StephanieMarie]

1. The liberal media hasn't put them out, because, we can

guess, the military vote went for Kerry, but the Liberal Media would rather say they went for Bush.

[nashville_brook]

2. that's what it's seeming like, to me... still holding out -- anyone? :)

[Botany]

3. Good Luck

The vote in Iraq by the military was handled by a contractor ......
The contractor had ties to Halliburton .......
The vote was electronic and then transferred as absentee ballots to the
servicepersons home district.

I know at the State HQs for Kerry in Ohio we got calls from troops in Iraq who
were mad about the situation and wanted bush gone. This was from officers
on down to enlisted personal ........

I doubt that the vote was any cleaner than in the States.

:bounce:

[nashville_brook]

4. the fact that the numbers don't exist makes my argument stronger

i can't believe this didn't make news -- oh, yeah i can. sigh.

[wickywom]

5. I'd look state by state...

in VA. Newport News went over 62% for Kerry-- big military and military industry town. I know quite a few who voted for Bush in 00 but not this time... these people were pretty hard core conservatives.
The word is out in the military.

[FreeCajun]

18. Wow!

I used to live in NN back in '02, and I figured it for a Bush town with all the corporate interests and military. That's STUNNING!

[Charon]

20. Newport News

Newport News does not have a big military population. Does have a big Steel Workers Union at the Shipyard. Is The core of the 1st Congressional District. This is a minority majority district that always elects Bobby Scott (Dem) to the Congress. All of the other CD,s in the area are Republican controlled and contain much higher military presence than Newport News.

[garybeck]

6. some numbers for NJ here

I called the NJ state election office and they said each county handles it differently.

Some include the overseas in their regular tallies. Others break it out like shown above. Plus the numbers include not just military, although the person I spoke to was confident it was "mostly" military.

[nashville_brook]

7. whoa! thanks!

[skids]

12. Are these same NJ numbers available for 2000? n/t

[garybeck]

15. I don't know, there's a phone number you can call

on the URL listed at the bottom of the chart

[Demit]

8. I joined military.com in december to try to find that out!

Plus I emailed a request to [e-mail] on 12/13--

Hello,

I am interested in the final tally/breakdown of military votes for the 2004 presidential election. Could you tell me where this information might be posted? Or can you direct me to a website and/or an organization where I might get further information on this topic?

Thank you for any assistance you can give me on this matter.

Sincerely,



--and never heard back.

[garybeck]

9. it seems like there is no requirement to report military vote

unfortunately.

However, I think that we will be seeing more dissent in the military, and it will become more obvious about their support (or lack thereof) for bush

[MadLinguist]

10. You probably already tried these, but

here are three military on-line sources, of rather different characters:

http://www.stripes.com/about/aboutstripes.html#Contacts
http://www.optruth.org/main.cfm
http://www.vaiw.org/vet/index.php

I have been interested in finding out these numbers, too. I tried searching around on the above sites, and while I didn't find anything, it might be worth your while to contact them to see if they can either get at the data or help you find a source for it.

[nashville_brook]

16. thanks! i'll do that.

[NationalEnquirer]

11. Someone get ahold of Hackworth

He's been pretty anti-Bush lately, I'll bet he could find the numbers.

[rumpel]

13. General Info pre-election & Millitary related, Waxman

Wednesday, September 22, 2004
DOD Blocking Access to Overseas Voting Assistance Website
Reps. Waxman, Maloney, and Clay write DOD regarding recent reports that the Department is blocking access to the Federal Voting Assistance Program website for many Americans overseas.
http://democrats.reform.house.gov/Documents/20040922104502-02927.pdf

Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Call for GAO Investigation into Overseas Voting Problems
Reps. Waxman and Maloney ask GAO to investigate whether the Defense Department is fulfilling its obligation to ensure that Americans living abroad, both military and civilian, can vote.

http://democrats.reform.house.gov/Documents/20041019124355-45067.pdf

I'll check the GAO site, too.

[rumpel]

14. Here's one, I found on Google

http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/randirhodes/messageboards/lofiversion/index.php?t34757.html

and

[qwghlmian]

19. These include all overseas ballots -

military and expats. We know expats overwhelmingly voted for Kerry, that is no surprise. This doesn't tell us anything about military vote, one way of another.

[garybeck]

26. it is "mostly" military

I called the elections office and the woman on the phone told me that the vast majority of them are military ballots.

[nashville_brook]

17. man! you rawk!

[Yupster]

21. How would you know?

No one puts their occupation on their ballot.

I guess you could look at counties or precincts by large military bases. Can anyone help?

No military bases around where I live.

Counting overseas ballots doesn't help as they could easily be college exchange students like I was, or retirees living abroad rather than military.

[skids]

22. One way is to look at the "federal" category.

Though it is only a small portion of military ballots, there is a category of ballot called "federal" which is mostly military. There are ways for private citizens to get them but their primary use is for military.

Very few counties report these numbers separately, but some do. Also the ratio of miltary to non-military people in that number will vary from state to state.

As to whether these ballots are a good cross-section of the military at large, that's another question entirely. That's the reason why I asked about 2000 figures -- a better estimate than projecting the federal ballots as if they were all military, and as if they were a good sample of the military vote, is to look at the difference in margin between the two elections and apply that to the margin of the entire military in 2000. That still makes assumptions that people using the federal ballots were not more/less likely to change their mind, but it might be a more meaningful metric.

The only county I have on hand that reports a "NONCOUNTY - FEDERAL" number:

Pasco, FL 9 for Bush, 6 for Kerry (Countywide 54% Bush 44% Kerry)

[rumpel]

23. I tend to think someone has the data, because they were always referring

to it that "usually" the millitary votes repub etc.

maybe this requires a FOIA request?

[nashville_brook]

24. i should have said overseas military ballots...

cool tho -- i wrote the piece and thanked DU for the input. the fact that the overseas numbers aren't easy to find gives me a lead for another piece.

remember florida 2000 -- we knew the overseas numbers, then. didn't we?

[qwghlmian]

25. You can find out the overseas numbers -

but haven't seen anyone separate out the military votes from the expat votes. Considering that in 2004 there was a big campaign to GOTEV (E standing for expat), I would presume the overseas ballots were higher in number in 2004 elections.