Editorial: Snails and soldier ballots
Since Congress has wasted so much time playing politics with the soldier vote bill, the last the Senate and House conferees can do is to arrive at their compromise quickly. There is no excuse for more delay. There is a very practical reason for speed.
Whatever the nature of the final measure may be, one thing is certain. The states will have to pass upon and count the ballots. This will be true whether the so-called states’ rights bill of the House is accepted, or the Senate-modified federal ballot bill, or the more probable adjustment of the two.
But the rub is that many states are not geared for this responsibility. Not only changes in state laws are required, but in some cases state constitutions must be modified to make such mass absentee voting practicable. This takes time.
Meanwhile, several governors take the position that they cannot call their legislatures into special session and otherwise start the involved technical preparations for a changeover until they know definitely the scope and requirements of the federal law. So further delay by Congress easily might defeat the purpose of the law by making state compliance impossible in the relatively short time remaining.
Nobody is in any doubt as to where the American public and the servicemen stand on this issue. The demand that the men doing our fighting for us be allowed to vote is virtually unanimous – as members of Congress discovered when they went home for the recent recess.
The point for the politicians to remember is that pious motions and slick parliamentary jokers will not be acceptable to the public this time. Here is one case in which only results will count. If the fighting men are disenfranchised, come November, they and their families and friends and all believers in democracy will hold the politicians responsible. Excuses will not help.