-Caveat Lector-
November 9, 2000
ELECTION 2000
Bacon denies WND military-ballot report
Pentagon addresses question of troops not being able to vote
By Jon E. Dougherty
� 2000 WorldNetDaily.com
Defense Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon has attacked the
messenger -- WorldNetDaily -- in an attempt to undermine the
newssite's story that many U.S. servicemen and women stationed
overseas did not receive absentee ballots in time to vote.
In a press briefing Tuesday, Bacon referred to Saturday's WND
story, Military missing absentee ballots, as "ludicrous."
A reporter started the exchange:
Q: The premise of this Internet story is basically that there is
some plot to suppress the military vote, which they assume will
be Republican. Now what would you say to such a ...
Bacon: Well, I have no idea what the military vote will be, but
the premise of that story is ludicrous.
In response to a question about a postal snafu that led to delays
in delivery of ballots, Bacon said he had no knowledge of the
problem, adding that it is up to individual servicemen and women
to secure their own ballots.
During Bacon's briefing, a reporter, citing the WorldNetDaily
report, explained that mail delivery had been held up for entire
foreign units and asked Bacon to address the report.
Bacon attempted to shift blame away from the Pentagon and instead
put the onus on servicemen themselves, though he acknowledged
that the service branches -- at one point -- do handle mail for
service members.
"If you -- yes, that is precisely right, just as if you sent a
letter to a person aboard ship, or when you were on ship once,
and if your mother sent you a letter, or a girlfriend, it would
be at some point collected by the Navy and delivered to the
ship," he said.
"But it was up to the mailer of the letter or the mailer of an
absentee ballot to get it in the mail at the right time, and get
it to the right address, where it would then be picked up -- an
APO box or FPO box -- and delivered to the ship," Bacon
continued. "Now if people requested the ballots too late, it
could have been a difficulty, or if there was a hiccup in the
mail, just as if there -- if you were trying to vote absentee in
the United States because you planned to be traveling, and there
was a hiccup in the mail, you might not get your ballot on time."
One reporter, in an attempt to find out what information Bacon
was using to refute WorldNetDaily's story, asked, "How would you
know whether people are having problems [getting their ballots]
or not? How do you know that?"
Bacon: "Well, apparently somebody talked to this Internet
service. But I assume they could go to an official on the ship or
at the base and say, 'I haven't got my ballot.'"
Q: "But how would you know back here? In other words, on what
basis are you answering our questions today?"
Bacon: "Well, I'm answering your questions completely on the
basis of procedure; what the procedures are -- "
Q: "Right, so you don't know. There could be -- "
Bacon: - "and I think - I think - let me just point out; the most
important thing for everybody to realize is that the Pentagon
encourages people to vote, but it - and it tells them how to
vote; that is, it tells them the procedures to follow, and the
procedures generally involve requesting an absentee ballot from a
local authority well enough ahead of time so that the person can
get the ballot returned by election day. That's the primary role
we play."
The Pentagon has also said that about 130,000 service personnel
in 1996 -- because of a failure of ballot delivery or request by
the member -- did not get absentee ballots and could not vote.
Navy Lt. Dave Gai, the Pentagon spokesman who initially spoke to
WorldNetDaily about the story, admitted hearing reports "about
this [absentee ballot non-deliveries] within the past week," but
said that the Defense Department was "trying to get more
information."
The day after the story broke, however, an agitated Gai contacted
WND to complain, saying the report was "biased" and incorrect --
though he failed to cite any factual error, other than that he
had been incorrectly referred to as an Army spokesman instead of
a Defense Department spokesman.
Also Tuesday, United Press International reported that
WorldNetDaily said "the crew of the stricken USS Cole has been
unable to vote."
In fact, WND had quoted Gai: "'The support team for the USS Cole
may not get their ballots due to intermittent mail,' Gai said.
'Some ballots could very well be delayed for a number of
reasons.'"
On Wednesday, Gai again criticized the overall flavor of the
initial WND report, calling it "biased" and "unprofessional."
"In general, personally, [the story] caused some heartache, but
also professionally the credibility on articles on the Net are
questioned anyway," he said. "When something this biased ... hits
the Net, it creates havoc with correspondents here."
However, when asked directly whether all U.S. military personnel
that requested absentee ballots in fact got them, Gai said he
couldn't "verify on an individual basis" and that he was "not
aware of any large-scale problems."
"The personnel [themselves] need to notify their commanding
officers that they didn't get the ballots and request Special
Form 186," he said.
Gai reiterated that sometimes -- especially with sailors and
officers stationed aboard U.S. Navy ships on assignment overseas
-- "mail is intermittent" and that there was "no way to control
when it arrives [or] when it goes out."
He also said in the case of the USS Cole that he initially told
WND the on-board support team "may not get" ballots in time, not
that they wouldn't get them.
Bottom line, he said, was that military personnel themselves "are
responsible for requesting absentee ballots. It's not the
military's responsibility. The Pentagon doesn't send out
ballots."
WorldNetDaily was initially contacted by U.S. residents and
service members who said that, in contrast to prior election
years, they had not yet received their absentee ballots -- but
that they had requested them in the correct way.
Since the report broke, numerous other service members have also
contacted the newssite, complaining that they too had not yet
received ballots, even though they requested them.
A Florida Navy wife whose husband is stationed in Kuwait, writing
the newssite today, was typical:
"My husband is a registered Republican here in Florida and was
quite bothered that the results are so close and that he had no
opportunity to vote. He said many of the troops where he's at
were also unable to vote (most of them in favor of Bush)."
Bacon told reporters yesterday that the seven-ship battle group
that the USS Cole belonged to had received 2,100 standard Form
186 write-in ballots for the purposes of voting. He also said
that not all personnel needed them because some had likely
already voted via absentee ballots obtained from their home
districts.
The Pentagon spokesman was also vague in responding to a
reporter's question about the number of ballot complaints
received by the Federal Voting Assistance Program -- the office
that handles voting for military personnel stationed overseas:
Q: Are you aware that the Federal Voting Assistance Program has
received any complaints from service members who, for one reason
or another, were unable to cast an absentee ballot?
Bacon: I'm not aware that they have received an unusual number of
complaints.
Q: Well, what's the usual number?
Bacon: I don't know. I don't know about complaints. I mean, they
may have received complaints, but what I'm trying to explain is,
if a - we know that 2,000 ...
Q: We're just trying to get the fact on how many complaints -
Bacon: I don't know that. We'll try to find out how many
complaints.
The Federal Voting Assistance Program is managed by the Pentagon.
Gai said Monday that the program "was not aware of any group
non-delivery."
At one point during the press conference, Bacon emphatically
denied that the Pentagon shared any culpability at all for
"absent" absentee ballots:
Q: Just to be absolutely clear, are you saying that if a member
of the military that was deployed overseas had a problem voting,
it wasn't your fault?
Bacon: I'm saying it is not the Pentagon's fault. But everybody
in the Department of Defense encourages - encourages - voting.
And we have worked very hard to encourage voting, and we're sorry
if there were some glitches that may have prevented people from
voting on time.
However, at no point during the press conference did Bacon deny
that some members of the military had not received ballots in
time.
The issue of absentee ballots is nowhere more important than in
the state of Florida, which is undergoing a mandatory vote
recount after Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al
Gore came to within several hundred votes of each other following
yesterday's election.
Though final vote tallies had Bush slightly ahead, because it was
a margin less than 0.5 percent Florida law requires a mandatory
recount.
At issue is the number of overseas absentee ballots still waiting
to be counted. Most of those, all major news networks reported
yesterday, are from overseas military personnel. Also, the
networks agreed that traditionally most military service
personnel vote Republican -- an advantage for Bush and a
potential coup de grace to Gore's chances of winning.
In fact, a story on yesterday's Military.com noted that "an
unscientific poll conducted on the American Legion's website,
which was promoted on U.S. bases abroad, showed Bush ahead by a
ratio of nine to one." It also quoted Philip Pollock, professor
of political science at the University of Central Florida, as
saying that in 1996, roughly 2,300 service members submitted
absentee ballots in Florida.
Other press reports suggested that WorldNetDaily's initial story
was a thinly-veiled attempt to advance a conspiracy theory that
because of an expectedly high pro-GOP military vote, the
administration had purposely delayed delivery of the absentee
ballots to give Gore an advantage.
However, at no point in WND's story was a conspiracy discussed,
nor was that question put to Lt. Gai or other service personnel
who contacted the newssite to report the discrepancy. The story
contained one sentence expressing the sentiments of some
administration critics who "have suggested that the Clinton
administration may have purposely delayed sending absentee
ballots to military personnel overseas because most, according to
recent surveys, will vote Republican."
Bacon also attempted to undermine the story by casting aspersions
on WorldNetDaily.
"I'd like to point out that that news service is the same news
service that's been spreading an absolutely false story about
President Clinton going to Vietnam on a Navy ship, which he's not
planning to do," Bacon said. "So I think you have to be careful
about some of these news stories."
After WND published an Aug. 23 story reporting that according to
high-level U.S. Navy sources President Clinton was planning a
trip to Vietnam before the end of his term, and that he was
conspiring to lower a Navy flag below the level of Vietnam's flag
upon entering the communist nation's territorial waters, a major
uproar ensued.
Naval and congressional media representatives specifically denied
that there would be a Vietnam trip. Three weeks later, USA Today
and Associated Press confirmed that the Vietnam trip would indeed
take place -- after the election and before Clinton leaves
office.
Although the main source in the first article said Clinton would
make the trip aboard a U.S. Navy ship, in a follow-up report last
month, WND quoted a CINCPACFLT officer clarifying that the
intention was not for Clinton to travel onboard a naval vessel.
But rather, he said, "I believe that the concept was for a port
visit by one of our ships concurrent with his visit."
Three high-ranking sources -- two Navy officers and one
government appointee -- have confirmed both the presidential trip
to Vietnam and the discussions of the flag controversy. WND has
since been contacted by congressional staffers who are monitoring
the issue to assess if or when legislation might be appropriate
to preclude such controversy in the future.
Bacon, who was Monica Lewinsky's boss at the Defense Department,
made headlines in April after a Senate Armed Services Committee
hearing. Pentagon Deputy Inspector General Donald Mancuso
announced that although Bacon had leaked information from Linda
Tripp's private Pentagon security file to New Yorker reporter
Jane Mayer, Bacon and his assistant, Clifford Bernath, would not
be subjected to any criminal prosecution for their actions. Bacon
had openly admitted to the leak in 1998, expressing regret for
his actions.
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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