Senator Cornyn Calls for Reforms to Improve Military Voting

I testified yesterday before the Senate Rules Committee on the SENTRI Act, on my bill to improve military voting. The SENTRI Act seeks to end the disenfranchisement of our military voters and their families by streamlining the process and ensuring that errors or delays in ballot distribution can be corrected in time for service members and civilians living overseas to vote.

The 2012 election made clear that there are too many barriers to military service members and their families voting and having their votes actually counted, and that we need to do more.

These Americans make tremendous sacrifices in the defense of our nation, and those sacrifices should not include giving up their most basic rights as citizens.

Without question, it remains much more difficult today for military service members and their families to exercise their right to vote than their civilian counterparts.

The SENTRI Act would require DoD to offer military voters an affirmative, annual, online opportunity to fill out a voter registration and absentee ballot request form. Helping military voters to keep their voter registration current would also aid local governments.

The SENTRI Act is aimed at fixing the system’s most glaring deficiencies, which…continue to inhibit our service members’ ability to vote, and I hope the Committee will consider it favorably.