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Study: 28% of deployed troop votes not counted

A study released Wednesday says that 28 percent of deployed service members were unable to vote in the November elections because their absentee ballots were uncounted or never collected.

That finding, based on data gathered by the Congressional Research Service from seven states with high populations of military voters, is worse than in the 2000 presidential election, despite a massive effort to improve the absentee voting process, said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who requested the study.

“This is unacceptable and something we should not allow to continue,” Schumer said.

Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said he expects Congress to do something tangible because voting laws are not working.

The seven states in the study were California, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and West Virginia.

Combined, they account for 43.5 percent of the active-duty military population.