That provide context for Public Affairs issues. I have just had my say in the government of our country. My own private say. And if you, or the policeman over there, or the president of the United States asks me how i voted, i can say that is none of your business. As an american i have that right. Everyone of these people has that right. You have it. It is something special. Americans have a heritage of the vote no other nation on earth can match because in the modern world, we were the first. The first to build a working system of government on foundation of the vote. Websters dictionary says vote the right to exercise a wish, choice, or expression of will. Here in berlin one of these men is about to vote. In the only effective way he can. With his feet. Thousands and tens of thousands have made the dash to freedom from behind the iron curtain and a phrase came into being, they were voting with their feet. Then in berlin came the wall. As elsewhere, the communists had to do something. Too many people wanted out. And despite the wall, men and women would still risk prison or death. It is well not to underestimate how deeply runs the need of human beings for freedom of choice. Freedom of choice is the essence of voting. A polling place in which only one answer is no polling place. When you give each man a free choice, you run the risk of wide disagreement. Fine. Harry emerson crosby said it well liberty is always dangerous but it is the safest thing we have. The vote itself is nothing recent in mans history. The first ballots known were used in the popular courts ancient athens. The juries used balls like these to register their votes. White for innocent, black for guilt. From these came the word ballot, which means literally little ball. No, voting is nothing new but not until the 18th century in the american colonies did the vote become the Actual Foundation of a governmental system. This was something new in the world. And it was not easily done. The secret ballot became the rule. This way, the voter could not be intimidated before voting or punished afterwards. Power groups looked for ways to get around it. For example, a man might be ordered to write his name or put an identifying mark on his ballot so his vote can be checked. So a law was passed any ballot so marked would not be counted. Or a voter might be told to take a friend with him to the polls to help them with paperwork. And again to make sure of his vote. So another law was passed. No one is allowed in polling place but Election Officials and individual voters. Private voting booths naturally followed and so it went. Over the years, we made the system work, but there were a lot of kinks to be ironed out along the way. For example, what about citizens in uniform . Before the civil war, most states would not let soldiers vote at all. They were afraid of military control of elections in communities near large army installations. The few who could vote had to do it in person or not at all. There was no absentee balloting. During the civil war, some union states set up ways for men away from home to vote. Some arranged for voting in the field. Others allowed men to mail votes home for a friend or relative to take to the poll for them. All of this however was strictly temporary. By the time world war i came, many states had set up absentee voting systems. And in 1917, with most troops in the states, military votes were substantial, if not truly impressive. But in 1918, with two million men overseas and no provision for voting outside the United States, the military vote was virtually nonexistent. Clearly these men had the right to vote but there was just no provision for it. When world war ii came the problem to be tackled again the Congress Passed the federal voting law to allow Service People away from home in time of war to vote. Now, those overseas could vote for senate, house and president ial candidates. In 1944, some 2. 5 million voted overseas. It was somewhat complicated to get the ballots through the mail and back to the states again but still, if you really wanted to there was a way. During the korean war it was made easier for a serviceman to cast his vote, and he was encouraged to do so. But this was still a special combat zone provision and like those before it a temporary one. So in 1955 it was the major step forward when the federal Voting Assistance act became law, providing the mechanism for absentee voting anytime, anywhere, war or peace, on a permanent basis. This law provided for getting election information to the serviceman and helping him obtain an absentee ballot. It also recommended to every state that it adopt a simple and uniform voting procedure to make the whole process less complicated. The fpca, federal postal card application, became the key to program. Today, every state accepts it as a valid application as an absentee ballot from service personnel. Today, casting your vote from any spot on earth is an easy matter. No matter how you look at it, from your viewpoint as a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine, the steps you take are simple. Your voting officer will see to it that you get an application card together with the voting information you need for your voting district. You fill out the fpca, drop it in the mail, no need for a stamp. It goes by free air mail right to your voting district back home. They will send you an absentee ballot back, again, by airmail. You have it with a minimum of delay. The rest is up to you. And rightly so. Your vote for whatever candidate for whatever reason is your business and no one elses. Finally, your ballot goes back home by air and into the voting total along with the votes of your neighbors. And wherever you are, you have the means of making sure that your vote is an informed vote of following the issues, the candidates, the platforms as the campaign gets underway. If youre ever tempted to wonder if your single vote means anything, just remember that every vote is counted and everyone counts. A single vote can swing an election. Dont underestimate it. This is something no amount of money can buy for you if you dont have it. It is just a piece of paper, but represents your basic right as a citizen. More than 130 years ago a man named William Corbitt hit it on the head when he said the great right of all without which there is in fact no right is the right of taking part in the making of the laws by which we are governed. Important aspects of your life in uniform are directly regulated by congress. Pay rate. Allowances, benefits, term of service and so on. But congress is also directly regulated by you as citizens. This is the means by which you can have your say. Wherever the needs of the nation demand it around the world, you are on duty. Dramatic duty sometimes, not so dramatic most times, but always important. Necessary to the overall purpose, the same purpose it has always been to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity. Who more than you who in this moment of history are providing the defense of the nation, who more than you should use a free voice that youre helping to ensure. That free voice is the vote. You are watching American History tv. Next, on American History tv, historian mona siegel talks about her book, peace on our terms the global battle for womens rights after the first world war. She argues that a great diversity of women from around the world pushed for greater rights in the wake of the great war and some of these women that were attending the 19191920 paris peace conference helped push Woodward Wilson to support the 19th amendment. The