Lest we forget...
True American heroes mail in votes but war recedes as campaign issue The buff-colored envelopes marked BALLOT FOR MILITARY VOTERS arrive at the Board of Elections by regular mail from voters in Iraq who did not know they would still be alive on Super Tuesday.
What they did and do know should be our city and nation's shame - the civilians who vote in safety back home Tuesday are more worried about the economy than the war that, at the most recent official count, has killed 3,797 of America's finest and wounded another 32,768. Tens of thousands more continue to risk violent death and maiming.
But we at home are more worried about jobs and fuel costs and the stock market and the value of the dollar and real estate values. Sure, that poor kid lost his legs, but what about my mortgage rate?
Hillary Clinton would not even have to bother lying about her vote for the war if she had not already lied back when Iraq was the big issue.
A little downturn in the economy was all that was needed to change that, certainly here in New York despite having lost 173 of our best. California seems to have been a touch slower to forget the war, perhaps because it has lost 422, more than double any other state.
Of the New Yorkers among the combat fatalities, 26 were too young to have voted in the last presidential primary and died before they had a chance to vote in this one.
These included Le Ron Wilson of Queens, who was just 14 at the last Super Tuesday. He was only 18 when he was killed by an IED in July. He had volunteered for a particularly dangerous patrol, placing more at risk than could ever be measured by money.
"He joined the Army because he felt he was being of service to humanity," said his father, Lawrence Wilson. "That was the kind of person he was."
For this primary, the City of New York Board of Elections sent out 1,152 military absentee ballots in recent weeks and no doubt a sizable portion went to Iraq and Afghanistan.
A fair number of these arrived back before Tuesday, which means these ballots have been sitting here while the soldiers who sent them were just an IED explosion or a sniper's bullet from never knowing if their candidate won.
In an absolutely correct effort to ensure every living soldier will be able to vote despite the vagaries of military mail service, the Board of Elections extends the deadline for receipt of these absentee ballots to a week after the polls close.
The board does not open any of the military ballots until that extended deadline. And, unless the primary comes down to just a few votes, all the military ballots become an afterthought. Even the soldiers who mail in their ballots long in advance are cheated of feeling that their vote really counted. That could end with a simple change of procedure - open the ballots in hand Tuesday.
At the same time, election law in New York appears to hold that a person who files an absentee ballot must still be alive when the polls officially open for the vote to be legally valid.
Which seems to mean a soldier can mail in his ballot only for the vote to become invalid if he or she happens to get killed before the polls open. (!)At the very least, we should amend the law so such a ballot becomes valid the moment the soldier signs the back of the sealed buff-colored envelope and marks the box affirming: "I am in the actual military service of the state of New York, or of the United States."
Tuesday, Super Tuesday and the Super Bowl will brush past each other as the big Giants' parade goes up the Canyon of Heroes right past the Board of Elections' headquarters.
As you cheer the Giants, save a thought for those true heroes who vote from afar in harm's way in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, as you step into the booth to cast your own vote in total safety, the shame is cravenly all yours if you put money worries ahead of the war from which our finest Americans send in those buff-colored envelopes, not knowing if they will live to learn who won.
---Michael Daly, New York Daily News, February 5, 2008