I have to be honest and say that while I sympathize with this serviceman and any others who are effected, I don't understand why he did not earlier confirm his voter registration. I am from a long line of military personnel and dependents, and I have known since I could first vote over 3 decades ago that one falls off most voter registration rolls (not all) if two votes are missed. My daughter got married in October, and she and her husband made sure months ago that they are properly registered to vote since they have had a few changes in circumstances. It is our responsibility to make sure we are registered, and I am sorry this gentleman did not do so.

Again and again. Where is the republican leadership?????? Why haven't they got a handle on this?

I believe that, had he voted, his registration would not have been cancelled.

I agree with Posters 1 & 2, and I'd like to know more about this maintenance provision in FL law -- I'd like for all states to have it!

Ooops! Posters 1 & 3.

The fact that this has been a problem for years and still not fixed should be disturbing to all americans. These are soldiers who are risking their lives for their country. There should be some easy fix for this. One example is an automatic notification to his permanant address when a soldier first enlists that he is on duty and registered to vote until he is released from duty or deceased.

Now hold on. Think through the whole story.

The policy and the current legislation is sound. People who haven't voted *do* need to be removed from the polls. And if you listen to the story carefully, a warning that the removal will happen is sent prior to the removal occurring. It does not happen without that warning first.

The only place the system breaks down is is that warning is not received by the person in question, as it apparently was in this case. The warning needs to be sent in such a fashion that service people abroad have time to respond... and then they need to take the responsibility to do so -- hopefully most would.

The bottom line is, our government does not do a good job of getting any mail and communications -- and *specifically* about the vote, as in absentee ballots as well as this warning -- to our armed forces abroad. The democrats in office have a vested interest suppressing it, in fact. THAT has been our complain all along.

Do not blame the inactive voter purge laws.
Blame the fact our military service people are not being given their most important mail and critical communications in a timely fashion. *That's* where the changes need to be made.

In the 2000 election, thousands of military absentee ballots were thrown out because "they hadn't arrived before the deadline". Of course, they were mostly republican ballots, as are the majority of servicemen's votes. Despite that, and all the hanging chads, Bush still one Florida.

As a poll watcher in the past, I've watched people show up, not on the voting rolls and leave the polls AFTER having voted. There was a poll staff there to deal specifically with these issues. I would say the staff helped people vote who probably voted in their home counties as well as in the county that they voted in that day. These kids were allowed to use their dorm address. Their DORM address! There is no way these people should not be allowed to vote. No way. Again, where is obama and Holder? Where's the calvary? I'm getting so sick of this. Democrats are the biggest enemies of this United States.

I agree with 1 & 3.

Even after moving 10+ times, from coast to coast and the midwest,in 28 years of active duty, I never lost track of my voting site. It is the voter's responsibility to update ones status, not the system.

Can they not use a provisional ballot?

IN almost 26 years of active duty service my husband has had, and my I have been along with it the whole while, both of us have always voted in elections. Now, in 2ooo, we both voted for Bush by absentee voting in CA, and I believe our votes were part of the mass of absentee votes that were never counted to make sure that Gore won the popular vote. Over the almost 26 years, we have voted in three jurisdictions, and probably only voted in person for about 5 years. The rest were always absentee and we did it.

Meanwhile, Daffy Duck continues to vote each and every year.

While Everyone should check their voting status there is a bigger issue here. The repeated failure to secure voting for the military. Crashed plane ballots lost, 85% of offices required to be setup by law have not been. Absentee ballots mailed to military, were way past deadline to be returned. Yet obama and holder, if you remember SUED FL to stop them from purging those rolls to get illegals, and dead people off them, how is it only military got purged?