Military voting rights not democratic

Eight years ago I was in boot camp at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, Calif. It was election season then as it is now, but back then voting meant something different for me. I had just turned 19 and it would have been my first vote in a presidential election.
Although that election would change my life forever, the chance to vote slipped me by.
I arrived in San Diego in August and was a marine by November. During my three months of boot camp I became very interested in political affairs and current events. However, the information I was receiving was restricted to newspaper clippings my grandfather sent me, which I could only read on Sundays between laundry time and church services. My parents were in Egypt, where an intifada was taking place just across the border. The U.S.S. Cole had been blown up by terrorists in Yemen, and the presidential race between Al Gore and George W. Bush was getting more and more heated. I clearly remember one of our drill instructors asking us who we would vote for after getting a little material about how Bush would help the military pounded into our heads.
Almost every single member of my platoon raised their hand when asked if they would vote for Bush. When asked who would vote for Gore, not a single hand was raised. I didn't raise my hand for either candidate, mostly out of fear for being seen as pro-Gore. 6-foot-tall drill instructors screaming in your face and making you do push-ups, scrub the floor, run up and down stairs, stand out in the rain for hours at attention or do sit-ups on a hard and sweaty floor.
Instant, willing obedience to orders is the lesson of boot camp: Just do what you're told. Not only was I unable to express who I wanted as Commander and Chief, but I was also lacking the freedom to vote for my new boss.
None of us were able to vote for either candidate, unless we used our one two-minute phone call for the month to call the county clerk's office back home, requested an absentee ballot application, and then found the time to fill it out, send it back, get the ballot, fill that out and send it back—in time. Our drill instructors didn't spend more than a minute asking us if we wanted help getting absentee ballots and little to no information about the candidates was provided to us. We were told that if Bush were elected we would get raises. An interesting thing about this election was that when a recount was ordered, a new batch of absentee ballots arrived in Florida to be added to the count. From my understanding most of those ballots were from service members deployed overseas. These votes were only counted after an election so close it had to be recounted; before that they were not considered important.
After graduating from boot camp I found a new home in Camp Pendleton, Calif., where I became a resident and potential voter in the 2002 California elections. I had just returned from a seven-month deployment out at sea in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and the new war on terror. By the time I returned back to Camp Pendleton I had a whole new perspective on the world and on politics.
By that time I had been convinced that it was not my duty to question why or to ask how I could get involved with political decisions. I just did as I was told. I had learned that democracy and the Marine Corps are not interconnected.
The best thing about this election is that I received a voter's guide in the mail from the state explaining who all the candidates were and what all the bond issues meant, something I had never received while living in New Mexico. I studied the guide thoroughly only to decide not to take part in the elections: What did I have to do with California anyway? I'm a New Mexican. It's a shame I couldn't have had a voice in the 2000 election though. Maybe I wouldn't have had to deal with being sent to combat in Iraq if my vote could've been counted. I hadn't even been back from my deployment for six months before they shipped me off to Kuwait where we would stage our invasion into Iraq. Despite the insanity the war played on my mind I remember the elections in California upon my return in the summer of 2003. Not even a year later, after Gov. Gray Davis had been re-elected, a recall election was held. Again, I did not vote, as I was unsure if I should vote for the porn star Mary Cook, actor and alleged woman beater Gary Coleman, or the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The ridiculousness of the campaign played out in true Hollywood style, interesting, but still repulsive in ways.ent. Besides, I had other things to think about, like the after-effects the war was having on me.
By the time 2004 rolled around I was back in Iraq. I had volunteered to take the place of Marines who had been killed in Fallujah. Before long I was hearing about a new election. This time the absentee ballots were on hand and I was ready to vote. It was an easy choice for me, but I still wanted more information about the candidates. In Iraq I got a lot more information about the candidates from the satellite T.V. we had at the chow hall than I had in boot camp, but it still wasn't enough. I decided not to fill out an absentee ballot, because I would be back home in time to vote in person, if I wasn't killed by a mortar round or sniper first.
Another Marine in my gun team, Bonds, didn't think it was so easy though. One of our sergeants kept telling him to hurry up and fill the thing out, and to vote pro-military, which we understood meant pro-Bush. Bonds kept telling me he didn't want to fill it out and that he didn't want to vote at all. I told him he had every right to not fill out the form. I told him I wasn't going to do it, and that he shouldn't be intimidated to do anything he didn't want to. I'm not sure if he ever filled the form out or not. If he didn't fill it out I wouldn't be surprised if it made it back with someone else's signature on it.
Back in the States I gathered as much information as I could about the candidates, only to find both presidential candidates were Skulls and Bones members. The information I was receiving was far more balanced than anything I saw while on base, and there was a lot more of it, too. I was back in New Mexico and no longer active duty, so I had no trouble finding the time and freedom to make it to the polling location. As I walked into the school where I was to cast my ballot I told my girlfriend, "I guess I'll vote for the lesser of the two evils," and went into the booth.
Four years later and now it's time for me to cast a vote for my candidates of choice. A four-year degree in political science, four years in the Marine Corps, and 28 years as an American who has lived in three countries and two states has really shaped my political views and taught me tons about the American political process.
I've been told by friends and acquaintances that my vote still won't matter because the Electoral College makes the final decision, not the public. "Just look at the Gore-Bush election," they say. I don't care. Going to the polls means more than casting a vote: It means I have the freedom to finally choose who I want in office based on my own research and my own understanding of the candidates. It is about making my own decision for once, and that is enough, whether it makes a difference or not.

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