The commander in chief who reportedly called U.S. troops “suckers” and “losers” is now pushing a ballot-counting policy that could disenfranchise tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of American service members who are voting from overseas.
President Donald Trump, in social media posts and remarks, is demanding that all ballots be counted by election night, even though federal law permits states to count ballots from troops stationed outside the United States, diplomats and other Americans abroad to have their ballots counted days later, as long as they were sent no later than Election Day.
In Trump’s new home state of Florida, the deadline for this election is Nov. 13. So, for example, his attempt to skew the counting in his favor could prevent service members deployed overseas from the Naval Air Station in Jacksonville or from Southern Command headquarters in Doral from having their votes matter.
“Trump simply never thinks of the military in his decisions. They just don’t matter to him,” said Fred Wellman, a retired Army helicopter pilot who now works with the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. | 