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Department of Defense has a long-standing
commitment to provide voting assistance
to service members, civilian employees,
and their families. This assistance includes
programs to facilitate new voter registration
and absentee balloting during election
years. Registering to vote – and
exercising that right – is an important
responsibility for all. An especially significant
audience is our high school students who
will reach the age of 18 before graduation.
In DoDDS Pacific, we want to help students
become knowledgeable, responsible voters
at an early age.
Goal 1B of the Community Strategic Plan – All students will have access
to learning opportunities for productive citizenship and continuous learning – supports
specific action for a voter assistance program in our high schools. The DoDEA
Social Studies standards state that social studies programs should include experiences
that provide for the study of the ideals, principles, and practices of citizenship
in a democratic republic.
DODDS Pacific schools plan to support this important
effort by providing information about voting and by initiating a process to register
all eligible high school
students. In partnership with our military community, principals will work with
the voting assistance officer and the school liaison officer in each community
to ensure that eligible students receive the necessary registration forms and
absentee ballots. Our goal is to reach 100 percent of students who are eighteen
or who will turn eighteen before the end of the school year. Information for
voters, including first time voters, is located on the DoDDS Pacific web site
homepage at www.pac.odedodea.edu.
To further assist our students and employees with the absentee voting process,
I am requiring that superintendents and principals appoint a voting assistance
officer for their organizations. This individual could be an administrator, counselor,
U.S. Government teacher, or a concerned and interested employee. I encourage
all DoDDS Pacific employees to take advantage of the voting assistance officer’s
expertise, and to use our website to link to the specific information you will
need from the Federal Voting Assistance Program.
Voter registration for eligible students supports the DoD Voting Action Plan
(VAP) and Voting Information Support Plan signed by Deputy Assistant Secretary
of Defense Paul Wolfowitz in March 2002. Please remember that, as Federal employees,
we have a tradition of caring to uphold, and the responsibility to teach our
young people about our precious freedoms and rights. Whether you are a parent,
teacher, student, or community member, I encourage you to get involved in supporting
our effort to inform and engage our eligible voters in the American democratic
process and in exercising their right to vote.
Nancy
C. Bresell
Director, DoDDS Pacific
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