Jackson Free Press

[Verbatim] Jackson, MS—At the request of the United States Department of Defense (DoD) and the National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS), Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann is one of five Secretaries of State from across the nation currently visiting our troops overseas. The bipartisan trip was designed to connect personally in the field with military men and women, to encourage them to cast their vote in the 2008 General Election and to discuss the process of military voting.Â

Today, Secretary Hosemann went to Baghdad, Iraq and met with soldiers and voting officers and then continued his tour to Balad Air Force Base in Iraq and met with voting officers and watched how an absentee ballot is mailed and processed.  Secretary Hosemann will continue to visit other locations throughout the week.  Because our troops are located in potentially unstable areas, we are unable to release any other details about Secretary Hosemann's visit at this time.
 
"This is a privilege for me to visit with Mississippi soldiers and encourage them to vote in the upcoming election," says Secretary Hosemann.  "I am honored to represent Mississippi and be one of the few Secretaries of State visiting our troops abroad about this most important election."
 
"Mississippi is a leader in military voting," says Secretary Hosemann.  "We were the first to provide a means for our soldiers to cast their ballot by email, and now I am getting the opportunity to personally talk to soldiers and encourage them to use this excellent tool for casting their ballot."
 
This trip comes at no cost to Mississippi taxpayers and is sponsored by the Department of Defense.

Previous Comments

ID

138478

Comment

One has to hope Hosemann isn't over there playing partisan politics with the ballot as he has here since he took office. (See our recent editorial calling for Hosemann to lose the partisan tricks on behalf of Haley Barbour.) This AP story leaves out the political party of the five secretaries of state, but I must assume that they are of both parties: Election officials from five states, including Mississippi and Florida, are spending several days overseas to talk to U.S. troops about voting in the presidential election. Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann told reporters during a conference call Tuesday that he returned to Kuwait after spending the day in Iraq. Hosemann, a Republican, said he was traveling with the secretaries of state from California, Florida, Indiana and Pennsylvania. All were invited by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The Department of Defense is paying for the trip. Hosemann said Mississippi is among about a dozen states that allow military voters to cast absentee ballots by e-mail.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2008-10-01T09:06:01-06:00