|
VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.
Be sure to get all four
VA Watchdog dot Org
RSS feeds --
Daily VA
News Flashes
House CVA
Veterans' News
Senate CVA
Veterans' News
VA Press
Releases
Download your
free copy of the
2008 VA benefits
handbook here...
|
Printer-Friendly Version
VA MANDATE: NO VOTER REGISTRATION ON
PREMISES -- Secretary Peake calls voter
registration "partisan." Senators cry foul.
This story came out last month. That
article here...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfMAR08/nf031908-7.htm
Now we have further details in the story below.
I feel this is plainly and simply voter
suppression.
The act of registering someone to vote is NOT
"partisan." Period!
So, we must ask the question: Why doesn't
the VA want veterans to register to vote? Is it because they don't
want veterans to vote? That appears to be the answer.
Watch for more news on this.
And, if you'd like to let folks know that you're
a veteran and you vote, you can order the VA Watchdog T-shirt pictured
above: "I'M A VETERAN, AND I VOTE." Just click on the T-shirt
or on the following link...
http://www.cafepress.com/vawatchdog3
A portion of your purchase price will go to support this site.
Story here...
http://www.alternet.org/democracy/81935/
Story below:
-------------------------
Veterans Department Creates Roadblocks to Voter
Registration for Injured Vets
By Steven Rosenfeld
AlterNet
On the same day the Pentagon's commander in Iraq told the Senate that new
troop withdrawals could not considered for months, Secretary of Veterans
Affairs James B. Peake told two Democratic senators that his department
will not help injured veterans at VA facilities to register to vote before
the 2008 election.
"VA remains opposed to becoming a voter registration agency pursuant to
the National Voter Registration Act, as this designation would divert
substantial resources from our primary mission," Peake said in an April 8
letter to Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and John Kerry, D-Mass. He was
referring to a 1993 federal law that allows government agencies to host
voter registration efforts.
Both Sens. Feinstein and Kerry said they were frustrated with Peake's
position.
"The Department of Veterans Affairs should
provide voter materials to veterans," Feinstein said. "I believe the cost
of providing these voter materials is minimal. It's a small price to pay
for the sacrifice these men and women have made in fighting for our
nation's freedom. I am disappointed."
"You'd think that when so many people give speeches about keeping faith
with our veterans, the least the government would do is protect their
right to vote, after they volunteered to go thousands of miles from home
to fight and give that right to others," Kerry said. "And yet we've seen
the government itself block veterans from registering to vote in VA
facilities, without any legal basis or rational explanation.
"I will keep fighting with Sen. Feinstein to ensure that veterans aren't
facing unnecessary hurdles just to exercise their voting rights."
Peake's letter was the latest response to a year-old request by Kerry and
Feinstein to give veterans using VA facilities the opportunity to register
to vote, just as people who apply for a driver's license are given that
chance at state motor vehicle agencies. Veterans who have not previously
registered, as well as registered voters who move, must reregister with
new addresses in order to vote. By not helping the injured veterans to do
so, it is likely that former soldiers seeking care at VA facilities will
lose their right to vote in 2008.
The secretary's letter explained the decision by citing ongoing litigation
where a federal court recently "found that the VA's restriction on
partisan political activities in VA facilities... does not on its face
violate the First Amendment" rights of veterans.
Peake also said the VA was "considering" the issue for future departmental
action, telling the two senators, "VA shares your commitment to assisting
veterans in exercising their constitutional right to vote."
While Senate staffers were studying Peake's letter for ways to keep
pressing the issue, the letter brought swift condemnation from veterans'
advocates.
Veterans advocates dismayed
"During a time of war, our nation has a special and sacred duty to assist
our fellow citizens who have defended our Constitution with their lives --
our military veterans -- with registering to vote and with voting," said
Paul Sullivan, Veterans for Common Sense executive director. "We encourage
VA to allow nonpartisan voter registration drives at VA facilities so that
as many veterans as possible can actively participate in our democracy --
we owe our veterans no less for standing between a bullet and our
Constitution."
Sullivan said that third-party groups could help the VA with voter
registration.
"Reasonable steps should be taken by VA and nonpartisan voter registration
groups so that such activities do not interfere with the delivery of
services, while at the same time protecting our veterans' rights to
register and to vote," he said. "Hopefully, in 2008, America will see
record voter registration and voter turnout, especially from our veterans,
and most especially from our wounded, injured, ill and disabled veterans
in VA facilities."
Scott Rafferty, an attorney based on Washington, D.C., who has fought the
VA in federal courts since 2004 over the right to assist vets, including
the homeless, to register to vote at a VA campus in Menlo Park, Calif.,
said Peake's contention that the VA didn't have the resources to register
voters was not credible.
"It is a ridiculous position," said. "Because in today's world, with the
internet, there are not significant costs to a voter registration program.
You are talking about one additional piece of paper when you are talking
about the processing of an incoming veteran ... They want to keep veterans
cloistered and politically inactive."
Rafferty said the issue was not going to go away. The federal judge in the
Menlo Park litigation is required to make some big decisions on that case
in the near future, where Rafferty said voter registration proponents are
seeking a nationwide injunction to force the VA to offer voter
registration. Rafferty also said at least one secretary of state from a
large state also was considering ways to pressure the VA.
"Their mission is to take care of veterans," he said.
VA response not unique
But the VA's response is not unique among government agencies, according
to Michael Slater, deputy director of Project Vote, which is organizing
registration drives across the country in 2008.
"America, among western democracies, is unique in putting the
responsibility on the individual, not the state, to register voters," he
said. "Today, 63 million Americans, about a third of eligible voting age
population, are not registered to vote."
"When we try to shift the onus from the individual to the state, we see
reluctance -- and the VA is one example," Slater said, saying that many
state social service agencies that already are required to offer voter
registration opportunities to public aid recipients have not followed
through.
The state that does the best job at offering voter registration -- because
it was sued by the Department of Justice -- is probably Tennessee, Slater
said, where for every 100 food stamp recipients, 27 people were
registered. In Oregon and California, only 8 people per 100 food stamp
recipients are registered to vote, he said. In Arizona and Florida, it is
2 percent.
"If California did as well as Oregon, that would be an additional 180,000
voters," he said. "There is just this huge potential if government
agencies like the VA finally offered voter registration."
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
Don't forget to read all of today's VA
News Flashes (click here)
Click here to make VA Watchdog dot Org your homepage
email Larry
(go
back to VA Watchdog dot Org Home Page) |
Military
Medical Malpractice
Legal
Network
VA Watchdog Stuff...
cups, hats, shirts...
click on item to order
and support the site.
|
