Voting made easier for military stationed overseas

Groton— Joel Angle was in Kirkuk, Iraq, in 2004, helping secure the city for the upcoming Iraqi elections.

At the same time, Angle, a specialist in the U.S. Army, was wondering if he was going to be able to vote in the U.S. presidential election. His infantry unit distributed ballots but he found out online that the deadline to vote by absentee ballot was only a week away.

"I don't know if my vote even counted," Angle said Monday at a press conference. "There were a lot of issues concerning defense. Every day I could've been killed and I felt like some of us who were most affected by who was elected weren't able to participate."

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., Rep. Joe Courtney, D-2nd District and Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz held the press conference at the U.S. Submarine Veterans Club to announce that service members stationed overseas will have an easier time voting due to the president's recent signing of the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act, which dramatically reduces the processing and postage time for absentee ballots.

All three called it ironic that service members are sometimes thwarted from participating in the democracy that they are helping to defend.