Armed Forces voter’s week, overseas voting challenges

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Hailey Davis
  • 18th Wing Public Affairs
KADENA AIR BASE, Japan --  Armed Forces Voter's week starts June 28 and will run through July 7. This is an initiative to inform armed forces members how to vote and get them registered to vote.

The Voter's Assistance Office, building 721, will have three voter registration drives held on Kadena June 28-30 for this year's election cycle.

On June 28 the drive will be at the Military Personnel Section from 8 a.m. to noon and 2:30-4 p.m. The June 29 registration drive will be held at the Kadena Post Office from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The voter registration drive June 30 will be held at the main Exchange from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

At the drives, tables will be set up with various forms that people need to register to vote, said Master Sgt. Travis Smalls, alternate installation voting assistance officer.

"We will provide people information as well if they have any questions regarding the whole voting process. For example, how do you vote while being overseas," Smalls said.

To vote while being overseas, service members and their families are required to fill out an absentee ballot. To get a ballot, people need to fill out the federal post card application. The application is filled out, sent to the local county voting offices where people are registered to vote, and the local county election office will send the ballot to the address written on the application.

Smalls' advice to young Airmen and their families is to think bigger and to stay engaged on current issues that are affecting the military and civilians because their vote counts.

One of the challenges faced with voting overseas is service members sending their application back in a timely manner, as well as returning the voting ballot once received.

Some states have the application online at www.fvap.gov, also Airmen can e-mail vote@kadena.af.mil if they have any more questions.

If Airmen have any questions regarding registration and how to vote, they can contact their unit voting assistance representative or go to the website to locate their closest voting assistance office.