Friday June 22 12:50 PM ET
By Charles Aldinger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon announced on Friday steps to correct problems in casting and counting absentee military ballots, which helped George W. Bush win Florida by a razor-thin margin and give him the presidency.
Hundreds of overseas ballots from military and Defense Department civilian workers were rejected over technicalities in Florida -- which Bush won by 537 votes -- and other states last year, and Assistant Defense Secretary Charles Abell said the Pentagon was moving to fix the problem.
Abell told a press conference the military would press to make sure all mailed votes are postmarked with dates as already required and will in the future provide annual basic training to all troops on voting rights and process.
Central voting information points will also be provided and advertised at all bases and aboard ships at sea to make sure that troops and their families are aware of different rules on ballots in the states in which they vote, he said.
He also said the military would work to initiate voting on the Internet, a recent effort by some states to get more people involved in the voting process.
``Men and women who serve our nation in uniform today and tomorrow are willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice in providing for the common defense,'' said Abell, who is assistant defense secretary for force management.
``It's our duty to ensure that the ballots they cast are votes counted,'' he said.
Large numbers of overseas ballots often run into problems in many states at election time due to lack of postmarks and other technicalities.
But the Florida count -- in which a large majority of military ballots were for Bush -- highlighted the problem because of Bush's narrow victory.
Some states count absentee ballots which arrive after the date of the election if there is an indication such as a postmark that the ballot was cast on or before election day.
In Florida's case, many absentee military ballots had improper postmarks or none at all. Democratic candidate Al Gore eventually agree to allow the ballots to be counted anyway, giving Bush a significant boost in a very close election.
Abell said an investigation by the Defense Department's inspector general found no major system breakdowns in how the military handled and mailed absentee ballots last year, but he conceded that many ballots were not postmarked with dates as required by the military.
He stressed many of the 50 states and U.S. territories had different rules for counting absentee ballots.
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