ASHINGTON - Defense Secretary William S. Cohen yesterday ordered an internal review of the way the military handles absentee ballots from troops stationed abroad, in light of the political dispute over disqualified votes in Florida.
Cohen instructed the department's inspector general to examine whether standard practices were followed in handling absentee ballots from overseas military personnel and whether handling procedures could be improved.
Several hundred absentee ballots from overseas were rejected in Florida because they lacked postmarks, as required by state law, or other flaws such as having signatures or signatures that did not match those on record. Bowing to Republican pressure, public unease, and lawsuits, elections officials in several counties reversed earlier decisions to reject overseas ballots that had missing, improper, or post-election postmarks.
The Pentagon has no hand in voting by members of the military, other than in postmarking and delivering their mail. But it advises service members who wish to vote by absentee ballot to allow enough time to receive ballots from their states of residence.
Kenneth Bacon, Cohen's spokesman, said among the issues the Pentagon inspector general will examine is why some absentee ballots from overseas arrived without postmarks. ''This has been an education for the military as it has been for most of the rest of us in the United States,'' he said.
Cohen's intent, he said, is to see whether it is possible to make the process of voting absentee ''more efficient, more fair, and more inclusive, and to make it easier.''
