How American Soldiers Voted in World War II
Unlike today, voting for the World War Two serviceman was not such a straight forwarded affair. That isn’t to say voting for modern American Servicemen and Women isn’t easy only that things have objectively improved since WWII. Soldier’s attempting to vote encountered numerous obstacles to make absentee voting difficult or non-existent. It took a series of changes, each building incrementally to loosen-up the restrictions in time for the armed forces to vote in the Presidential election of 1944. One of the biggest changes was the political shift of the Republicans to allow (or at least not inhibit the Democrats) a federal presence in what is to be considered an area of state’s rights.
Table of contents
- How American Soldiers Voted in World War II
- 1944 Primary Election
- 1944 Elections
- War Department Form 560- Federal Application for State Ballot
- USWBC-Forms 1, 3, 4 Federal Application for State Ballot
- State Ballots in 1944
- Federal War Ballot
- Election Fraud
- Who Got The Ballots?
- Irregularities in Voting
- Casting the Ballot
- Prisoners of War (POWs) Casting the Ballot
- Videos of Soldiers Casting Their Absentee Votes
- Example of Federal War Ballot Mailbag Tags used to identify mailbags en-route back to the states:
- 1945 Elections
- 1946 Elections
- Sources
- Extra Information