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Sponsor Statement for SJR 8
Voting Sites at Military Installations

Relating to supporting polling places at military installations and reserve component facilities.

Contact: Paul Roetman, Legislative Aide to Senator Loren Leman

Last Updated: January 29, 2001

SJR 8 expresses the Legislature's support for locating polling places at military installations to provide convenient access for military men and women to vote. SJR 8 responds to a Department of Defense (DoD) directive issued before the last election that advised installation commanders not to allow their facilities to be used for polling places.

For many years polling places have been located at military bases, posts, armories and other installation facilities, such as elementary schools. Denying access to these facilities means denying a military voter convenient access to the ballot box.

The impact of the DoD directive on the last election was temporarily avoided. U.S. Senator Ted Stevens helped postpone the effective date of the DoD directive until December 31, 2000 through a congressional insert in an appropriations bill. That time has expired, and the DoD directive is now in full effect. Thousands of military men and women in Alaska, therefore, could be in jeopardy of being denied access to their traditional polling locations.

SJR 8 calls upon the President of the United States and Secretary of Defense to rescind the DoD directive so military men and women are able to freely exercise the same Constitutional right they defend for every American.

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