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If and when the Congress and the President reinstate a military
draft, the
Selective Service System would conduct a National Draft
Lottery to
determine the order in which young men would be drafted.
The lottery
would establish the priority of call based on the birth dates of
registrants. The first
men drafted would be those turning age 20 during the calendar
year of the lottery. For example, if a draft were held in 2012, those men born in
1992 would be considered first. If a young man turns 21 in the
year of the draft,
he would be in the second priority,
in turning 22 he would be in the third priority,
and so forth until the year in which he turns 26 at which time he is over the age of liability.
Younger
men would not be called in that
year until men in the 20-25 age group are called.
Because of
the enormous impact of
this lottery, it would be
conducted publicly,
with full coverage by the media.
Accredited observers from public interest groups will
have full access to
observe the proceedings.
HERE IS
HOW THE LOTTERY
WOULD WORK:
The lottery process begins with two large air mix drums. First,
the air mix balls having date and month on them are loaded in
one of the large drums. Using this same method, number from 1
to 365 (366 for men born in a leap year) on the air mix balls
are loaded in the second drum. Official observers certify that
all air mix balls were loaded in the Titan drawing machines.
One air mix
ball is drawn from the drum containing birth dates January 1
through December 31. One air mix ball is then drawn from the
drum containing the sequence numbers from 1 through 365 (366 if
the draft will call
men born during a leap year) and the date and number are paired
to establish the
sequence number for
each birth date. This is done in full view of all observers, officials, and the
media.
For example,
if the date of August
4 is drawn first from the “date” drum, and the sequence number
of 32 is drawn from the “number’s”
drum at the same time, then those men turning 20 on August 4 would be ordered for
induction processing only after
men whose birthdays drew sequence numbers 1 through 31.
The drawings continue until all 365 (or 366) birthdays of
the year are paired with a sequence number.
After the lottery is completed and results certified, the
sequence of call is transmitted to the Selective Service
System’s Data
Management Center.
Almost immediately the first induction notices are
prepared and sent via the U.S.
Postal Service to
men whose birth dates drew the lowest lottery numbers.
This system,
based on random selection of
birth dates, with the order of
priority for
reporting assigned in a random manner,
is a fair and equitable method of calling men to serve.
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