The Pittsburgh Press (January 15, 1944)
Soldier vote fight
Washington (UP) –
A stormy House debate on soldier balloting appeared certain to take place next week after Elections Committee approval of a bill authorizing the War and Navy Departments to send cards to servicemen asking them to write their home states for ballots.
The House committee version would amend the Senate-approved bill which merely recommends that the states enact legislation to facilitate soldier voting.
No sooner had a Republican-Southern Democrat coalition approved the measure 7–5 yesterday than Committee Chairman Eugene Worley (D-TX) blasted it as a “ghost bill” which would not enable servicemen to vote next November and would “destroy their morale more than all the enemy bullets, bombs and propaganda have been able to do.”
Mr. Worley had offered a compromise plan authorizing the War and Navy Secretaries to distribute ballots to the men overseas which would then be collected and forwarded to the several states for validation and counting. This the committee bypassed, but sentiment among Democratic members of the House appeared to be swinging in that direction.