FOREIGN SERVICE RETIREMENT and DISABILITY FUND-Continued Annuities-Continued. Maxwell K. Moorhead.. George H. Pickerell. Harold Playter....... John R. Putnam. $3,211. 80 2, 724. 96 4, 189. 44. 6, 000. 00 2, 783. 22 2, 410. 08 1, 275. 12 Bradstreet S. Rairden.. Hugh F. Ramsay. 4, 560. 72 1, 474. 20 5, 400. 00 1, 631. 60 FOREIGN SERVICE RETIREMENT AND DISABILITY FUND-Continued Refunds-Continued. Oscar S. Straus 2d. David Williamson.. DISBURSEMENTS-continued $160. 93 196. 10 4, 400. 62 $38, 292. 37 Cost of additional investments less value of investments redeemed.... Total disbursements.. Balance in fund exclusive of investments, June 30, 1943__ Face value of investments, June 30, 1943____ Receipts: RECAPITULATION, FISCAL YEARS 1925 TO 1943 INCLUSIVE Congressional appropriations Transfers from appropriations on account of mandatory deductions from salaries --- Cost of additional investments less value of investments Total disbursements... Balance in fund exclusive of investments, June 30, 1943 Face value of investments, June 30, 1943.. 673, 000, 00 1, 153, 393. 12 19, 402. E. 6, 115, 000. 00 $4, 512, 000. 00 3, 410, 934. 40 81, 798. 09 386, 291. 38 1, 821, 948. 61 931.8 10, 213, 904. 39 3, 610, 094. 02 468, 008. 02 1,399. 52 6, 115, 000. 00 10, 194, 501. 56 19, 402, 8 6, 115, 000. 00 78TH CONGRESS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 2d Session } DOCUMENT ABSENTEE VOTING IN TIME OF WAR BY MEMBERS OF THE ARMED FORCES MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES TRANSMITTING A REQUEST FOR THE EARLY PASSAGE OF EITHER S. 1612 OR H. R. 3982 JANUARY 26, 1944.-Referred to the Committee on Election of President, Vice President, and Representatives in Congress, and ordered to be printed To the Congress of the United States: The American people are very much concerned over the fact that the vast majority of the 11,000,000 members of the armed forces of the United States are going to be deprived of their right to vote in the important national election this fall, unless the Congress promptly enacts adequate legislation. The men and women who are in the armed forces are rightfully indignant about it. They have left their homes and jobs and schools to meet and defeat the enemies who would destroy all our democratic institutions, including our right to vote. Our men cannot understand why the fact that they are fighting should disqualify them from voting. It has been clear for some time that practical difficulties and the element of time make it virtually impossible for soldiers and sailors and marines spread all over the world to comply with the different voting laws of 48 States and that, unless something is done about it, they will be denied the right to vote. For example, the statutes of 4 of the States permit no absentee voting at all in general elections; 11 other States require registration in person in order to be able to vote; others permit absentee registration; but in some instances the procedure is so complicated, and the time is so limited, that soldiers and sailors in distant parts of the world cannot practically comply with the State requirements. But even if the registration requirements were met, there are still innumerable difficulties involved. For example Pvt. John Smith in Australia and his brother, Joe, who is on a destroyer off the coast of Italy, who think they are entitled to vote as well as to fight, find that they have to write in and ask the appropriate public official in their own State for absentee ballots. In every State those ballots cannot even be printed until after the primary elections-and in 14 States. the primaries do not take place until September. In due time the ballots are printed-but they cannot always be sent out immediately, since in about half the States the absentee ballots cannot be mailed until 30 days or less before the election. Weeks after they are mailed out, they reach John Smith in Australia and Joe aboard his destroyer. Even assuming that John and Joe, in the meantime, have not been transferred to another station or ship, or have not been wounded and sent to hospital, it is doubtful whether the ballots will get back in time to be counted. If they have been moved, as is very likely, the ballots may not even reach them before election day. In 14 States the procedure is even more time-consuming and cumbersome-for, instead of writing for an official ballot, John and Joe must first obtain special application forms for official ballots, which must be received and filled out and returned, before the ballots themselves are even mailed to them. The Congress in September 1942 took cognizance of this intolerable situation facing millions of our citizens and passed a Federal absenteeballoting statute (Public Law 712). That law did three things: It provided for a Federal ballot to be prepared by the States; it abrogated State requirements for registration and poll-tax payments, insofar as they apply to members of the armed forces; and it required the War and Navy Departments to distribute postal cards to members of the armed forces with which they might request Federal absentee ballots from their State election officials. The Federal law was a slight improvement, in that it provided absentee-voting procedures in those cases where there had been no action by the States. It also eliminated some of the strict procedural requirements contained in many of the State laws. The great defect in that statute, however, was that it still involved a time lag, so that the voter might not receive his ballot in time to return it to be counted. This defect is inherent, and cannot be avoided, in any statute under which the forwarding of ballots for distribution must wait until the candidates have been selected in the primaries, or which requires correspondence between the local election officials and soldiers and sailors who may be transferred or moved at any minute. If any proof were necessary to show how ineffective this Federal statute was, the fact is that out of 5,700,000 men in our armed forces at the time of the general elections of 1942, only 28,000 servicemen's votes were counted under the Federal statute. The need for new legislation is evident if we are really sincere-and not merely rendering lip service to our soldiers and sailors. By the 1944 elections there will be more than 5,000,000 Americans outside the limits of the United States in our armed forces and merchant marine. They, and the millions more who will be stationed within the United States waiting the day to join their comrades on the battle-fronts, will all be subject to frequent, rapid, and unpredictable transfer to other points outside and inside the United States. This is particularly true in the case of the Navy and merchant marine, components of which are at sea for weeks at a time and are constantly changing their ports of entry and debarkation. Some people I am sure with their tongues in their cheeks-say that the solution to this problem is simply that the respective States improve their own absentee-ballot machinery. In fact there is now pending before the House of Representatives a meaningless bill, passed by the Senate December 3, 1943, which presumes to meet this complicated and difficult situation by some futile language which-recommends to the several States the immediate enactment of appropriate legislation to enable each person absent from his place of residence and serving in the armed services of the United States * * * who is eligible to vote in any election district or precinct, to vote by absentee ballot in any general election held in his election district or precinct in time of war. This "recommendation" is itself proof of the unworkability of existing State laws. I consider such proposed legislation a fraud on the soldiers and sailors and marines now training and fighting for us and for our sacred rights. It is a fraud upon the American people. It would not enable any soldier to vote with any greater facility than was provided by Public Law 712, under which only a negligible number of soldiers' votes were cast. This "recommendation" contained in this piece of legislation may be heeded by a few States but will not-in fact, cannot-be carried out by all the States. Two States would require a constitutional amendment in order to adopt a practical method of absentee votingwhich is obviously impossible to do before the November elections. Only a handful of the States-nine will have legislatures regularly in session this year; and, to date, only eight other States have called special sessions of their legislatures for this purpose. Besides, the Secretary of War, who will have the bulk of the administrative responsibility for distributing and collecting the ballots, has stated: No procedure for offering the vote to servicemen can be effectively administered by the War and Navy Departments in time of war unless it is uniform and as simple as possible. Especially is this true with regard to the voting of persons outside the United States. * * An Army engaged in waging war cannot accommodate that primary function to multiple differences in the requirements of the 48 States as to voting procedure. I am convinced that even if all the States tried to carry out the "recommendations" contained in this bill, the most that could be accomplished practically would be to authorize the Army and Navy to distribute and collect ballots prepared by the States in response to post-card requests from servicemen-the very procedure set forth inPublic Law 712, which has been such a failure. What is needed is a complete change of machinery for absentee balloting, which will give the members of our armed forces and merchant marine all over the world an opportunity to cast their ballots without time-consuming correspondence and without waiting for each separate State to hold its primary, print its ballots, and send them out for voting. The recent bills, proposed by Senators Green and Lucas and by Congressman Worley (S. 1612, H. R. 3982), seem to me to do this job. They set up proper and efficient machinery for absentee balloting. |