For a number of years when I was in the Royal Navy and was old enough to vote, the services always ensured that where ever you were (or going to be) there was always a possibility to cast your vote in any General Election.
Clearly times have changed and it now seems that many current service personnel will miss out on the chance to vote in what for everyone will be an important election.
According to this article from the Times (will I have to pay for this link after June 2010?) the issue on the surface seems to be about the changes in the military postal service and a number of ‘changeovers’ of units.
Could there be some ‘deeper’ reasons that many of our Forces will be denied the right to vote? According to this Independent article, it is about the logistics of getting voting paper out and back in the allocated time. Last time I looked, the military have some of the fastest methods for moving ‘stuff’ around, surely with a bit of planning it should be a ‘no brainer’ to sort this out within the time frame allowed.
However, might it be that if many of the forces personnel were to vote Conservative this time (as Andy McNab says in the Times article above) and as many of them come from some of Labour potential marginal seats, their votes could add to the impending ‘hung’ parliament that everyone is predicting and deny Labour of an outright win.
Would this government stoop to such a low tactic to ensure victory?
Having to deal with what your enemy is trying to do to you is one thing. But worrying about what your government is doing to your rights behind your back is another. Lets hope that this gets sorted out as soon as possible.
Beasley's Place 
My sister is currently in the Navy and I've heard similar claims from her.
Frankly I'm appalled that anyone would support block-voting, but it's even worse that efforts may be underway to block the blocks – so to speak.
Being in the services doesn't make anyone immune from the requirement to appreciate the nexus of issues facing us, and I'm absolutely horrified that the choices we face may be presented in such a way as to make us think so – as vested interests have a habit of doing.
Too often the excuse when things go wrong is that someone was 'only following orders' or that 'it was within the rules'.
This applies equally to politics as it does to the services.
And it's just not good enough.
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