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2016 | Book

War, Politics, and the Soldier Vote: Some History Read chapter Read first chapter

The Soldier Vote

War, Politics, and the Ballot in America

Author: Donald S. Inbody

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

The Soldier Vote tells the story of how American citizens in the armed forces gained the right to vote while away from home.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
Chapter 1. War, Politics, and the Soldier Vote: Some History
Abstract
The story of absentee voting in the United States is a tale of the army and war. Not surprisingly, it is also a story of politics. Support for the soldier vote often hinged on beliefs about political party loyalty, the stature of the army, and what politicians and citizens thought about the nature of the soldiers. The advent of war and the deployment of large numbers of soldiers away from home brought with it significant changes in the ideas of the right to vote, who can vote, and how to get those votes back to the local precinct for counting.
Donald S. Inbody
Chapter 2. Civil War Partisanship: 1861–1862
Abstract
In 1861, as the American Civil War began, only Pennsylvania had statutes in place to permit voting by soldiers in the field. The law originally passed in Pennsylvania in 1813 permitted soldiers in the War of 1812 to vote via a form of proxy voting. The law, reenacted in 1839, was used until it was found unconstitutional in 1862. While it was upheld by the state Supreme Court in a November 1861 decision, a subsequent case was filed challenging the law.2
Donald S. Inbody
Chapter 3. Reelecting Mr. Lincoln: 1863–1865
Abstract
On Tuesday evening, October 11, 1864, twenty-two-year-old David McKelvy of Warren County, Pennsylvania, sat down at a small field desk in his tent to make an entry in his journal. For the past several days, he had been out among the soldiers of several Pennsylvania regiments. Not a soldier himself, he had been collecting votes for the upcoming Pennsylvania election of congressman and state legislators. After riding on horseback and in wagons on rough roads, as well as spending a considerable amount of time walking among the camps of the Pennsylvania regiments, he was tired. The weather had been wet and cold, and he had slept little during the previous few nights.2
Donald S. Inbody
Chapter 4. The Forgotten Soldier
Abstract
Despite the intense flurry of activity during the Civil War to ensure that soldiers in the field could cast votes, the interest in maintaining that access quickly waned with the end of the war. Most of the legislation framed the absentee soldier vote as a wartime measure. Many of the laws had sunset provisions in them mandating that they would expire at some point. By 1870, most states no longer had any statutes specifically permitting soldiers out of their home state to vote. Legislators clearly saw a difference between soldiers in the regular US Army and volunteers fighting in state regiments.
Donald S. Inbody
Chapter 5. World War II: Race and Politics
Abstract
The progressive era and World War I brought about some improvement in state absentee voting laws. However, most state laws still made it difficult, if not impossible, for a deployed military person to register and cast a ballot. The passage of the 19th Amendment, which enfranchised women in 1920, marked the end of significant change in election laws and ushered in a period of stasis that would last for two decades until the beginning of World War II.2 Resistance to attempts for further changes, especially granting the right to vote to deployed soldiers and sailors, would be marked by partisan and racial rancor.
Donald S. Inbody
Chapter 6. Federalizing the Vote: UOCAVA
Abstract
Once World War II ended in the summer of 1945, attention toward doing anything more for absentee voters and military voters in particular waned. As was the case after the Civil War, efforts related to the armed services shifted to demobilization, transporting the men home, and getting them back into civilian life. The general euphoria of winning the war overshadowed any interest in the military voter enfranchisement.
Donald S. Inbody
Chapter 7. Barriers and Disenfranchisement: The MOVE Act
Abstract
Participation by American military personnel in elections has been minimal for most of the history of the United States. Prior to World War II, with the exception of the Civil War, the principal reason for that lack of participation was disinterest, either active or passive, on the part of the public, politicians, and legislators. Military personnel during that period were often isolated from the public and had little incentive or opportunity to vote.
Donald S. Inbody
Chapter 8. American Civil-Military Relations
Abstract
The basic question underlying this book is: How have military personnel been treated when it comes to permitting them to vote, especially if they were in the field or otherwise deployed away from their home precincts? Related to that is the question of the relationship between Americans and their armed forces. The unevenness of that relationship speaks much to how elected officials have decided to resolve the issue of whether to grant service personnel the right to vote in absentia.
Donald S. Inbody
Chapter 9. American Military Demographics
Abstract
The present state of the American military is often misunderstood. That misunderstanding leads to incorrect conclusions about the politics and voting behavior of service personnel. Given the known relationship between voter demographics and voter behavior, it is essential that the armed services demographics, particularly the characteristics of enlisted personnel, be presented to show how they may be different from those of officers or the general American voting population. This chapter will establish the “ground truth” of the present state of American military demographics, particularly those of enlisted personnel, using official data from Department of Defense (DOD) sources and supported by other data sources.
Donald S. Inbody
Chapter 10. American Military Political Behavior
Abstract
So, how do soldiers vote? We know more now than we did a decade ago, but we know less than we do about the general population. The short answer, though, is that soldiers vote much like most Americans and the usual demographic predictors are good. The slightly longer answer is that officers who tend to vote for Republicans while enlisted are more evenly divided in their support for the two major political parties.
Donald S. Inbody
Chapter 11. Conclusion: So What and Who Cares?
Abstract
Americans want their soldiers to vote. At least that is what the public says in recent surveys and what politicians say publically. But this has not always been the case. Throughout much of American history, soldiers and sailors, while important, were not considered part of the state electorate. Reminiscent of the warnings against the maintenance of a large standing army, military personnel were seen as dangerous to democracy and inimical to liberty. Most states took steps to ensure that the troops in any federal army were specifically barred from voting and from impacting local politics as a result. Soldiers, especially those soldiers in the federal army, were not considered state citizens and therefore not eligible to vote in state elections.
Donald S. Inbody
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
The Soldier Vote
Author
Donald S. Inbody
Copyright Year
2016
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan US
Electronic ISBN
978-1-137-51920-7
Print ISBN
978-1-349-57815-3
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137519207