W.Va. Soldiers Can Vote By Fax; E-Mail May Be Added

By SHELLEY HANSON
WHEELING — While swabbing the deck at sea, returning enemy fire in downtown Baghdad or catching some shut-eye in a rolling Humvee, finding time to also vote may fall off a soldier’s to-do list.

And for others, remembering to mail an absentee voting ballot 6,280 miles from Baghdad to Wheeling on time may seem unreasonable; being a soldier is hard enough.

With this in mind, state and local officials want to make military members’ voting experience a little easier. Thanks to a new state law, participating West Virginia counties can offer voting by fax machine to soldiers overseas or in the U.S.

Ohio County Elections Coordinator Toni Chieffalo said the Department of Defense serves as the go-between for the county elections board and soldier. The county faxes or mails an optical scan ballot to DOD officials, who then pass it on to the soldier to complete.

Unlike electronic voting via touchscreen, optical scan ballots have dots that filled in with pencil by the voter. The ballots are then fed into a machine to be read.

Since the soldier’s optical scan ballot will be seen by more than one person, he or she must sign a waiver stating they understand their ballot is not a secret one, Chieffalo said.

The DOD then faxes the completed ballot back to county. The deadline for submission is 7:30 p.m. the day of the election. Since the fax is actually a copy of the optical scan ballot, the soldier’s choices must be copied onto an actual ballot; otherwise, the voting machine won’t read the soldier’s choices. Chieffalo said by law, one Democrat and one Republican must be present while the soldier’s choices are being re-marked on a new ballot.

“I don’t think it be will hard. It will take a lot of time,” she said, noting vote by fax is still “a good idea.”

On Thursday, Chieffalo said she had yet to receive a ballot by fax. There are 32,358 registered voters in Ohio County.

“Right now, we have 240 to 250 absentee ballots, and 70 of them are military,” Chieffalo said, referring to voters for the Tuesday primary election. “I don’t think we will get a lot” of votes by fax.

Jason Williams, West Virginia Secretary of State Elections Division manager, said counties are not mandated to offer voting by fax. However, in the Northern Panhandle, along with Ohio County, both Hancock and Marshall counties are using the method, according to a survey by the secretary of state. In all, 13 counties across the state are allowing vote by fax.

The West Virginia fax law coincides with a federal law titled Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting. In addition to soldiers, their spouses and children 18 or older can use the fax method. The state and federal laws also allow U.S. civilians overseas to vote by fax, Williams noted.

Voting via e-mail for overseas U.S. soldiers and civilians was also expected to be offered by the primary. The DOD would use a secure server to transfer the e-mailed ballots.

However, Williams noted the DOD was not ready in time, but it is possible e-mail voting will be offered for the general election in November.

“The secretary of state is always trying to find methods to increase voter participation,” Williams said.

For more information about voting options in your county, call:

? Ohio County, 304-234-3628;

? Hancock County, 304-564-3311;

? Brooke County, 304-737-3661;

? Marshall County, 304-845-1220;

? Wetzel County, 304-455-8224;

? Tyler County, 304-758-2004.