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TC Palm, April 8, 2009

Bob Trudell: Hometown Democracy would disenfranchise military voters

I spent 28 years as an officer in the Air Force and 33 years as a resident of St. Pete Beach, the small town that adopted Hometown Democracy two years ago. As you can imagine, I am uniquely familiar with both our armed forces and the so-called "Hometown Democracy" amendment. As a result, I can tell you two things definitively:

� First, "Hometown Democracy" already has caused widespread disenfranchisement, serious economic damage and staggering legal bills in St. Pete Beach.

� Second, "Hometown Democracy" poses a serious threat to the voting rights of overseas military personnel.

In 2006, our community adopted Hometown Democracy, agreeing to place all changes to our local comprehensive land-use plan on the ballot. Although its supporters promised that their amendment would empower voters, the opposite proved true. Hometown Democracy threw our local economy into a tailspin.

Hoping to reverse two years of catastrophic economic decline, we decided to put four comprehensive land-use plan changes on the ballot. Following Hometown Democracy instructions, the voters decisively approved all four changes in July 2008.

Ironically, it took less than 24 hours for Hometown Democracy � the same group that said it just wanted to "give voters a say" � to file a lawsuit aimed at overturning the election.

Under the pretext that the ballot language was "unclear," Hometown Democracy supporters instigated an apparently endless string of legal actions designed to obstruct or overturn elections in St. Pete Beach.

Regardless of how you feel about these lawsuits, the story of St. Pete Beach is proof positive that Hometown Democracy can and will generate last-minute litigation over ballot language.

This litigation will inevitably delay the printing and mailing of absentee ballots. For the average taxpayer, this delay is expensive. For the average voter, this delay is inconvenient. However, for the average soldier, this delay may mean losing the right to vote.

The voting process for the men and women of our armed forces is complex. Here's how it works: A soldier must make a written request for an absentee ballot from his or her hometown, which can take up to 30 days. The soldier must then wait to receive an absentee ballot, before filling it out and mailing it back. That can take another 30 days, depending on the soldier's post.

In Florida, absentee ballots that arrive after 7 p.m. on Election Day are counted only for federal offices. Ballots that arrive 10 days after Election Day are discarded altogether.

Costly litigation that delays ballot printing, even for a few days, may mean that thousands of military votes are never counted.

And while the leaders of Hometown Democracy have spent their time criticizing other proposals for "disenfranchising" military voters, they have utterly ignored a very real problem with their own idea: It may cost many of those military voters the right to have their vote counted.

At the end of the day, most military voters do not care about signing petitions for land-use changes, but they do care about voting for their next commander in chief. If Hometown Democracy passes, it may very well jeopardize their ability to do that.

Trudell is a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel and a resident of St. Pete Beach.