Listen to the Generals

A general (okay - an Attorney General) rescues the troops:

Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell issued an opinion yesterday in the dispute over absentee ballots used by members of the armed forces, saying that they must be counted.

Last week, the Fairfax County registrar said about 100 of the federal ballots, which are used as backups to local absentee ballots by citizens abroad, did not comply with a state law that requires that they carry the signature and the address of a witness.

As a result, he said he could not count them.

McDonnell (R) said a federal law that governs overseas military voting took precedence.

Speaking of Generals, here's one General speaking:

“I think what you’re seeing is kind of an evolution of thinking,” said Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the Army chief of staff. “We still need to participate in the political process, and maybe the young guys especially think it ought to be a little more public.”

That's from a NY Time article headlined Back From War, And Increasingly Into The Political Fray, in which we hit the campaign trail with milblogger/Vets for Obama chairman Phil Carter, Vets for Freedom co-founder David Bellavia, and others.

No scientific polls of the military or veteran vote have been conducted. And while Senator John McCain of Arizona is expected to carry the demographic, young Iraq veterans are working tirelessly for both parties, and with groups promoting policies that fall in between.

Attitudes of service members show as wide a variety of opinions as those expressed by their congressional representatives. A naval officer in the Pacific wrote a letter to Newsweek in which he stated the majority of Sailors on his cruiser showed little interest in voting. However, many planned to run for office themselves upon their return. This prompted the officer to write “I am certain that no one but a veteran–probably those who have seen active service–will hold any job after the war, from Constable to President.”