[low voices in background] E. G. MARSHALL: I've just had my say in
the government of our country. My own private say--and if you,
or the policeman over there, or the President of the United States
asks me how I voted I can say, "That's none of your business."
As an American, I have that right. Every one of these people has that right.
You have it. It's something special. Americans have a heritage of the vote no
other nation on Earth can match, because in the modern world
we were the first. The first to build a working system of
government on the foundation of the vote. [music] Webster's Dictionary says, "Vote:
the right to exercise a wish, choice, or expression of will."
Here in Berlin, one of these men is about to vote--
in the only effective way he can. With his feet. Thousands and tens of thousands have
made the dash to freedom from behind the Iron Curtain,
and a graphic phrase came into being: "They were voting with their feet." Then in Berlin came the Wall. As
elsewhere, the Communists had to do something.
Too many people wanted out. And despite the Wall,
men and women would still risk prison or death. It is well not to
underestimate how deeply runs the need of human beings
for freedom of choice. Freedom of choice
is the essence of voting. The polling place in which only one
answer is acceptable is no polling place. Of course, when you
give each man a free choice you run the risk of wide disagreement.
Fine! Harry Emerson Fosdick said it well:
"Liberty is always dangerous, but it's the safest thing we have."
The vote itself is nothing recent in man's history.
The first ballots known were used in the popular courts of ancient Athens.
The juries used balls like these to register their votes--
white for innocence, black for guilt. From these came our word "ballot,"
which means, literally, "little ball." No, voting is nothing new, but not until
the 18th century, in the American Colonies, did the vote
become the actual foundation of a governmental system. This was
something new in the world and it was not easily done. With us,
the secret ballot became the rule This way the voter couldn't be intimidated
before the voting, or punished afterward.
Power groups of course looked for ways to get around it. For example, a man might be ordered to
write his name or put an identifying mark on his ballot,
so his vote could be checked. So a law was passed--Any ballot so marked
would not be counted. Or a voter might be told to
take a friend with him to the polls to help him with the paperwork, and again,
to make sure of his vote. So another law was passed.
No one is allowed in the polling place but election officials
and individual voters. Private voting booths
naturally followed. And so it went. Over the years we made the system work,
but there were a lot of kinks to be ironed out along the way.
For example, what about citizens in uniform?
Before the Civil War, most states wouldn't let soldiers vote at all.
They were afraid of military control of elections in communities near
large army installations. The few who could vote had to do it in
person or not at all. There was no absentee balloting.
During the Civil War some Union states set up ways for men away
from home to vote. Some arranged for voting in the field.
Others allowed men to mail votes home for a friend or relative
to take to the polls for them. All this, however, was strictly temporary. By the time World War I came, many states had set up absentee voting
systems, and in 1917, with most troops still in the States, the
military vote was substantial, if not truly impressive. But in 1918, with two
million men overseas and no provision for voting outside the
United States, the military vote was virtually
non-existent. Clearly, these men had the right to vote,
but there was just no provision for it. When World War II came, the problem
had to be tackled all over again. Congress passed the Federal Voting Law
to allow service people away from home in time of war to vote. Now those overseas could vote for Senate, House,
and presidential candidates. In 1944, some two and a half million
voted overseas. It was somewhat complicated to get the
ballots through the mail and send them back to the States again. Still, if you really wanted to, there was a way. During the Korean War, it was made easier
for a service man overseas to cast his vote and he was encouraged to do so. But this was still a special
combat zone provision, and like all the others before it, a
temporary one. So, in 1955, it was a major step forward
when the Federal Voting Assistance Act became law,
providing the mechanism for absentee voting anytime, anywhere,
war or peace, on a permanent basis. This law provided for getting election information to the serviceman
and helping him to obtain an absentee ballot. It also recommended to
every state that it adopt a simple and uniform
voting procedure to make the whole process less
complicated. The FPCA Federal Postal Card Application
became the key to the program and today every state accepts it as a
valid application for an absentee ballot from service personnel. Today, casting your vote from
any spot on Earth is an easy matter.
No matter how you look at it, from your viewpoint as a soldier, sailor,
airman, or Marine, the steps you take are simple.
Your Voting Officer will see to it that you get an application card,
together with the voting information you need for your voting district. You fill out the FPCA and drop it
in the mail. No need for a stamp!
It goes by free air mail right to your voting district back home. They will send you an absentee ballot
back, again by air mail. You have it with a minimum of delay.
The rest is up to you, and rightly so. Your vote, for whatever candidate, for
whatever reasons, is your business, and no one else's. Finally, your ballot goes back
home by air and into the voting total, along with the
votes of your neighbors. And wherever you are, you have
the means of making sure that your vote is an informed vote--
of following the issues, the candidates, the platforms,
as the campaign gets underway. If you're ever tempted to wonder
if your single vote means anything, just remember that
every vote is counted and everyone counts.
A single vote can swing an election. Don't underestimate it. This is something no amount of money can buy for you if you don't have it.
It's just a piece of paper, but, it represents your basic
right as a citizen. More than 130 years ago,
a man named William Cobbett hit it right on the head when he said,
"The great right of all, without which there is, in fact,
no right, is the right of taking part in the making of the laws by which we
are governed." Important aspects of your life in
uniform are directly regulated by the Congress--pay rates, allowances,
benefits, term of service, and so on. But the Congress is also directly
regulated by you, as citizens. This is the means
by which you can have your say. Wherever the needs of the nation demand
it, around the world, you are on duty--dramatic duty sometimes,
not so dramatic most times, but always important.
Necessary to the overall purpose-- The same purpose it has always been:
to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Who more than you, who in this moment of history are
providing the defense of the nation, who more than you should
use the free voice, which you are helping to ensure? That free voice is the vote. [music]
