The Active Duty Military Vote

[Midwest_Doc]

I just finished a discussion with the family of two active duty guardsmen currently in training in Kansas in preparation for deployment to Iraq (by Thanksgiving). One soldier is a jr. officer in the military police, the other is an enlisted medical corpsman. I was surprised and gratified to hear of the anti-Bush, pro Kerry sentiment among the active duty military. I was told that soldiers cannot wait to vote - hoping there will be a new commander-in-chief.

[UCLA Dem]

1. which explains why the repukes are trying to block their vote.

[patrice]

2. They HAVE been treated very cheaply. n/t

[babylonsister]

3. I have a nephew on active duty; he's

voted absentee already, for Kerry, natch!

[Philostopher]

4. Interestingly, most of the polling I've seen of military members

is of non-commissioned officers and the officer corps. Even at that, a high percentage seem often to choose not to respond to questions about their political affiliation or candidate preferences. I suppose there's some possibly understandable paranoia involved, since technically active duty military people aren't supposed to express anything other than support for the CIC and other elected officials. Not so sure they weren't giving themselves warm fuzzies publishing results of polling of military members -- if the enlisted corps now is anything like it was in the early '80s, you had approximately the same political percentage makeup in the pre-NCO enlisted corps as you would on an average college campus, since most of the guys who were in with my ex were guys who would have gone to college if they could have afforded it.

[meganmonkey]

5. have there been any polls on active duty military?

particularly independent polls?
i've heard a lot about military 'trends' in voting, but not current polls.