The American presidential election kind of sneaked up on Sgt. Donald Myers. All of a sudden, Nov. 5 is just around the corner and Myers, 30, of New York City, doesn't have an absentee ballot.
What's an American voter to do when in Bosnia? Cast your ballot by fax. By using a fax you give up the secrecy of your choice, obviously. But at least faxing will get the vote back home in time."No kidding? By fax?" mumbled Myers through the burger he was munching at Task Force Eagle Base outside Tuzla. "I didn't think they had fax capability out here in the field."
While the majority of soldiers who are voting in this year's election are doing so by absentee mail ballot, when the time crunch comes, there's the fax.
AT&T has donated 16 fax machines for the 15,000 Americans participating in the NATO-led Bosnia peace force, said Lt. Dave Jones, 27, of Morganton, N.C., the voting assistance officer for the task force.
One machine is in Croatia and the other 15 are scattered around the American sector of the peace force in Bosnia. Each battalion has a voting assistance officer or non-commissioned officer equipped with a manual of regulations of all the states for registering and voting, deadlines and how the vote may be cast.
Many of the men and women here express high enthusiasm for the election. One of them is Sgt. 1st Class Maryann Mirabella, 38, of St. Louis, Mo.
"I never miss voting," she said as she poked holes in her cardboard absentee ballot with a government-supplied pin. "Voting is something I take very seriously. I have never missed a presidential election since I have been old enough to vote."
First Sgt. Joe Robbins, 39, of Galveston, Texas, is proud of his 7th Battalion, 227th Aviation. He says every single soldier in his battalion who was eligible to vote cast an absentee ballot.
"It's one of your rights as an American," said Robbins. "Some people ignore that privilege."
Though these men and women are in the field, many of them have access to at least some of the election campaign through The Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper, Armed Forces Radio and Armed Forces Television.
"They are better informed on the national level," said Lt. Jones, the voting assistance officer. "It may be a little harder to know who's running for City Council in Morganton, North Carolina."
Ballots by fax are sent to a central office in Raleigh, N.C., where they are collected and forwarded to the various states. Soldiers voting this way have to sign a statement acknowledging they are giving up their right to a secret ballot. But at least they get to make their voice heard.
The fax system was first started during the Persian Gulf War in 1990 and was used again in 1992 and 1994.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
The campaign trail
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