When I was deployed aboard USNS Comfort earlier this year in New York City, my daughter sent an Easter care package of chocolates from Texas. By the time the gift arrived, Easter was long gone and summer had almost ended. If it can take several months for chocolate to be delivered — imagine how high the demand is going to be this fall to deliver every ballot on time.
In just a few short weeks, our nation will face a presidential election unlike any in our history. Millions of Americans are choosing to vote absentee, just as many active-duty military members have been doing for well over a century.
We have reason to believe many of those votes won’t be counted this election. That’s why I signed on to support Count Every Hero, a cross-partisan campaign to ensure all service members’ votes are counted before election winners are declared.
In order for our votes to count this year, the public has to be prepared for election results to be delayed, and all candidates, media, election administrators, elected officials, and the courts should commit to waiting for the final count. This does not indicate fraud — slowing down to get it right ensures the safety and integrity of our elections.
As a proud combat nurse, I have cared for our nation’s warfighters for over 34 years. A captain in the Navy Reserves, I have been deployed three times in support of operations in the Middle East. During these deployments and when stationed away from my home of record, I have exercised my civil right and duty to absentee vote on numerous occasions.
Our votes matter to us for several reasons. First, it gives us a chance to choose our leadership. Commanding officers and senior enlisted leaders are chosen for us — the commander in chief is the only position that we get to have our say. Second, it honors our service of protecting and defending the Constitution, for which we swore an oath in protection of all American’s rights. And third, it connects us to our communities. We don’t just vote for the president, we also raise our hands in choice of school board members, state leadership, and federal representation.
Absentee voting was first instituted during the Civil War when President Abraham Lincoln insisted that a democracy should include all the legal voters who wished to vote. Since then, active-duty military members have been eligible to vote absentee with special protections while stationed away from their voting residence. Of course, there are rules and deadlines to be met when requesting and submitting an absentee ballot, and those must be followed, but delays in state ballot preparation and postal delays should not negate a service member’s valid vote that has been submitted through a properly obtained and executed ballot.
America is already seeking solutions to absentee ballot integrity and submission in the new paradigm of COVID-19 distancing and stay-at-home safeguards. Perhaps a silver-lining of this pandemic will result in an easy and secure absentee voting system going forward that will benefit our displaced military members as well as those who choose to vote absentee in the future. But for today — and for this election — such solutions are not yet in place, and so we need to ensure that each legitimately and properly submitted vote is counted before a winner is declared.
Every hero’s voice should be heard, and every hero’s vote should be counted.
Lynne Blankenbeker is an accomplished combat nurse. For more than 34 years, she has dedicated herself to caring for members of the military, veterans, and their families. This year, she ran for the U.S. House of Representatives for New Hampshire’s 2nd Congressional District.
