Washington ? U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan can speak to their families by Web camera and fight insurgents using sophisticated electronic warfare. Yet when it comes to voting, most troops are stuck in the past.

Communities in 13 states will send overseas troops presidential election ballots by e-mail this year, and districts in at least seven states will also let them return completed ballots over the Internet, according to data compiled by The Associated Press and the Overseas Vote Foundation.

That still leaves tens of thousands of service members in far-flung military bases struggling to meet voting deadlines and relying largely on regular mail to get ballots and cast votes – often at the last minute because of delays in ballot preparations in some states.

Adding an electronic boost to the process would ease those problems, but it raises security and privacy concerns.

Pentagon officials have been urging more states to move into the electronic age before November, a move that could help reverse recent trends in which thousands of military members asked for ballots but either didn’t vote or had their ballots rejected for flaws.

The push comes more than seven years after problems with overseas military voting set off an uproar in President Bush’s narrow 2000 victory. In Florida, where Bush squeaked out a 537-vote victory that gave him the presidency, questions were raised about several thousand overseas military votes that came in after deadlines and were counted in some districts but not counted in others.

This year, when war is a key campaign issue, the election results in any state – particularly one with heavy military voting – could turn on the votes of thousands of troops on the front lines.

In most states that allow e-mail balloting, the voter must also follow up by mailing in the ballot. And states that permit e-mail balloting warn that it is not a secure way to transmit personal information.

States that will send a blank ballot by e-mail are: Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Carolina, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. However, in some states, such as Illinois, only certain voting districts participate in the e-mail balloting.

States where voters can return completed ballots by e-mail are: Colorado, Indiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina and Washington.

In some communities only members of the military may use e-mail balloting.