CAMERON, N.C. - For Private First Class Michael Anderson, the perils he could face on his first deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan next year are the least of his worries.

Anderson, 22, says he is more concerned about how his wife, Tunisia, 30, and the four children they are bringing up - from six months to 9 years old - will cope with his long absence; whether they will be able to make ends meet; the long-term effects on their relationship; indeed, even whether the family can hold together.

In the new military housing development where they live outside Fort Bragg, just one of the military communities that ring the Army's largest base on the East Coast, the neatly manicured lawns, American flags, and bright new playgrounds mask a messier reality about military life this election season.

"The family situation for soldiers stinks," Anderson said in the living room of his simple two-story house in Lyndon Oaks, home to enlisted soldiers and their families, as his wife put away groceries from Wal-Mart.

"This is an area that needs a lot of improvement as far as things that help soldiers," he added, including more pay and benefits and family-support programs.

"The wives don't have much to do," he said. "They get bored. They need to have more types of recreational things."

In large part because of such anxieties, soldiers and their spouses are more engaged in this presidential election than ever before, according to longtime observers of the Fort Bragg area. They are keenly interested to see what the candidates' policies will mean for the future of their communities.

But many of them are caught between their frustration with their predicament and a desire to make sure the mission in Iraq is respected and their service is honored.

Anderson, for example, said he believes that "the soldiers aren't being respected when they come home." He complained of local stores in the Fort Bragg area "taking advantage of us" by jacking up prices.

Since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Army has taken unprecedented steps to help soldiers and their families cope with the strains of multiple deployments, unleashing a battalion of family assistance specialists, financial advisers, and setting up a variety of new counseling programs.

The Army has repeatedly acknowledged the strain caused by such deployments, including a higher divorce rate than in other military branches.

"There is a maturity in how the Army supports these families," insists retired Colonel George Quigley, 69, now a community volunteer and organizer for the McCain campaign, which is trying to convince military families that the former prisoner of war will provide more benefits, if not an immediate let-up in the pace of deployments.

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Our most basic charge as service member is to defend the country and its way of life. No action exemplifies the core principles of freedom more than the simple act of voting. It is our most basic right and one that we have had to fight for throughout our history. One would think that for those charged with its defense, casting a vote would be simple. Sadly, this is not the case. Many service members vote not in the district in which they are stationed, but in their home of record. The transitory lifestyle of the military makes this a common and necessary practice, and local municipalities generally have effective procedures in place to accommodate its constituents serving around the country. However, for those serving overseas the process is difficult, and for those deployed overseas, the process is practically impossible to navigate without the help and support of the DOD.

In 2000, I was deployed to Bosnia during the Presidential Primary Elections. Knowing beforehand that I would be deployed, I applied for an absentee ballot. As I did not know where I would be stationed, I had it sent to my parents thinking that they would be able to send it to me, and I could return it in time. As you can imagine, this was not the case. The ballot took two weeks to get to me at Camp Tuzla, another two weeks for it to return to California, and it missed the deadline. For all of us who have been deployed, we all know and accept the realities of the Military postal system. By and large, the system works pretty well, but it is near impossible to deal with anything time sensitive. In Bosnia, the system was unpredictable. In Iraq and Afghanistan, the system is functional, but chaotic. Clearly, there needs to be a special emphasis and assistance from the DOD in order to ensure that those who are fighting for our freedoms are able to cast their vote and be counted.

Currently the DOD uses the Federal Voter Assistance Program (FVAP), which provides a 460 page instruction manual detailing the step by step procedures for completing and sending the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA). The FPCA is a combined voter registration and absentee ballot application that was created from the Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voter Act of 1986. As states have a variety of different requirements, the “catch all” FPCA is difficult to fill out and a significant portion end up getting rejected by the states. According to a Pew Research study, 40,000 military FPCAs were rejected in 2006 due to some error in filling out state requirements. Furthermore, units Voter Assistance Officers are not given proper training on the difference between local registration and the FPCA.

In 2004 I was appointed as the Voter Assistance Officer (VAO) for my Troop. The only information or guidance I received was the memo assigning me the extra duty. Being responsible, I set out on my own to find resources and pathways to get my soldiers registered either locally or in their home state. I did locate the FVAP, and made attempts to get every soldier that was interested properly registered. In 2004 this was not as easy of a task as it is today. In garrison, this program works, as it relies on the predictability of the US. Mail. However, the Pew study shows that in 2004 VAOs reached only 50%of military voters. Furthermore, states require a myriad of different requirements that lead to confusion and error when filling out the FPCA. The Federal Voter Assistance Program is assigned the responsibility to register overseas voters, yet does not have the authority to affect and change the systems needed to make registration happen.

On October 1, the Senate passed S 3073, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. This act requires the Secretary of Defense to establish procedures for collecting absentee ballots of military overseas voters in elections for federal office; and delivering such ballots to the appropriate state election officials. Additionally, it mandates that the delivery must take place prior to the polls closing and authorized the DOD to use express mail and contract delivery services to ensure local receipt of ballots.

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NEW YORK - Today, the nonpartisan IAVA Action Fund released its 2008 Congressional Report Card. The Report Card grades every Senator and Congressman on his or her leadership and voting record on key Iraq and Afghanistan veterans' issues including the GI Bill, VA funding and mental health care. The Report Card recognizes the 110th Congress' unprecedented achievements on behalf of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans (more than 150 legislators received an A+). It also highlights the lawmakers who failed to make veterans a priority (9 politicians earned a D or F). A searchable version of the Report Card can be found at www.VeteranReportCard.org

"IAVA Action's 2008 Congressional Report Card reveals which lawmakers took a stand on behalf of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and which ones failed to truly support the troops," said Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA). "From their leadership on the GI Bill to their support of increased VA funding, IAVA Action holds lawmakers accountable with this campaign. Now every American can find out who in Washington really supports Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, and who is just full of hot air."