Report: Cheney Skipped 14 Elections in 5 Years

D A L L A S, Sept. 8, 2000 -- Republican vice presidential nominee Dick Cheney skipped voting in 14 of 16 elections since he registered to vote in Dallas County nearly five years ago, The Dallas Morning News reported today.

The missed votes included the March Texas primary in which Cheney could have cast his ballot for his future running mate, Gov. George W. Bush.

Cheney, campaigning today in Vermont, acknowledged that he did not vote in this year’s Texas primary, but said he voted in Wyoming’s primary, held in August.

“This year, in the primary, I voted in Wyoming. I moved back toWyoming,” he said.

Presidential candidates did not appear on ballots in Wyoming’s August primary, so Cheney did not have an opportunity to vote for Bush after reregistering there in July. In Wyoming, county party delegates last March cast votes for delegates to the national GOP convention in a nonbinding presidential straw poll.

Voted in Last Presidential Election

County records in Texas examined by the paper show Cheney registered to vote in December 1995 after moving to an upscale section of Dallas from the Washington, D.C., area as the new CEO of oilfield services company Halliburton.

The elections in which he voted were the November 1996 presidential election and the November 1998 race for governor and other state and local offices.

To avoid a constitutional conflict with running mates from the same state, Cheney changed his voter registration to Wyoming, his home state, in July, days before being tapped by Bush. He has since voted in the GOP presidential primary there.

“It appears that Dick Cheney did not receive a major-leaguevetting by George W. Bush,” said Chris Lehane, spokesman forDemocratic rival Al Gore. “What this shows is that George W. Bush … picked someone who not only was a member of the Republican oldguard, not only someone who is a big oil executive, but someone whodoesn’t even vote all that often.”

Cheney vs. Lieberman

Cheney’s 2-for-16 voting history in Dallas compares with thefive-for-six election participation rate of his Democratic rivalSen. Joe Lieberman over the same period in Connecticut.

Although Cheney’s role at Halliburton sent him on frequent tripsaway from Dallas, Texas election law generously allows for absenteevoting.

Earlier this month, while in Pennsylvania, Cheney had to defend his direct contributions to charities, which accounted for less than 1 percent of the $4 million he earned last year.

Questions about the donations arose after Cheney released personal tax records for himself and his wife Lynne showing that $442,152 went to charities from 1989 to 1999.

The 14 Dallas County elections Cheney skipped were the presidential and state primaries, primary runoffs and Highland Park city elections in 1996; two state constitutional amendment votes in 1997; a Highland Park school board vote, a Highland Park city election, a state primary and primary runoffs in 1998; a hotlycontested Highland Park school bond election and a constitutionalamendment vote in 1999; and this year’s primary and primaryrunoffs.

Records in New Haven, Conn., show Lieberman voted in allbut one of six elections there since December 1995, missing aNovember 1997 mayoral contest. Records were not available before1995.

Cheney was registered in Casper, Wyo., from 1978 until he movedto Dallas, which includes his 21 years in Congress and his time asdefense secretary from 1989 to 1993. Only records of federalelections, not state or local ballots, are available for Wyoming inthose years.

The Wyoming records show Cheney voted in every federal primaryand general election from 1978 to 1994.