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UPDATE: VA OFFICIALLY SAYS "NO" TO VOTER
REGISTRATION DRIVES -- Secretary Peake: "...The
agency
is not in the position to examine the agenda,
history and
motivations of every organization that may wish
to
conduct voter registration drives in our
facility."
For complete background on the battle to allow
voter registration on VA property, click here (story has backlinks)...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfJUL08/nf071108-3.htm
We have two pieces of information...first is a
news story, then a press release from Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Chairman
of the Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
-------------------------
Story below:
VA refuses request to change vote policy
Veterans Secretary James Peake formally responded to a request by three
prominent Democratic senators to reverse his policy disallowing voter
registration drives on Department of Veterans Affairs property.
 He refused.
Peake said that part of the problem is the Hatch Act, which prohibits
partisan political activity by federal employees. The VA only wants to bar
partisan groups from registration drives. But Peake said even the
determination of which groups are partisan and which are not would amount
to a violation of the act.
So the simpliest solution, he said, is to bar all groups, partisan or not.
"Moreover, the agency is not in the position to examine the agenda,
history and motivations of every organization that may wish to conduct
voter registration drives in our facility," Peake said in a letter to the
Democrats.
U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs
Committee, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.,
have asked Peake to end the prohibition.
Akaka said in a statement today that Peake is misreading the law, saying
he was "amazed" that the VA is barring voter drives.
"If his contention were true, any federal employee stopping to consider
whether a comment or e-mail might be inappropriately partisan would
violate the Hatch Act with that decision-making process itself," Akaka
said. "That interpretation makes no sense. The Hatch Act exists for good
reasons, but it clearly allows outside groups to come to VA facilities to
help our veterans exercise their right to vote."
-- William R. Levesque, Times staff writer
---------------
Akaka press release here...
http://akaka.senate.gov
/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Ho
me&month=7&year=2008&release_id=2302
Press release below:
VA's Continued Refusal to Allow Voter
Registration Drives Makes No Sense
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Daniel K. Akaka (D-Hawaii), Chairman of
the Veterans' Affairs Committee, expressed disappointment today in
Veterans Affairs Secretary James B. Peake's continued refusal to allow
third-party organizations to conduct voter registration drives at VA
facilities.
Peake stated that the outright ban would continue in a new letter
responding to a request from Senators Akaka, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and
John Kerry (D-MA) to end the current prohibition.
Senator Akaka said: "I appreciate Secretary Peake's fast response as time
is critical here, and I am glad to hear VA will reach out to state
officials to help with ongoing voter assistance programs. However, I am
still amazed that VA insists on banning all voter registration drives by
outside groups.
"Secretary Peake's contention - that determining whether a group is
non-partisan is itself a partisan political activity banned by the Hatch
Act - is off base. If his contention were true, any federal employee
stopping to consider whether a comment or email might be inappropriately
partisan could violate the Hatch Act with that decision-making process
itself. That interpretation makes no sense. If VA really cannot
distinguish between non-partisan and partisan voter registration drives,
it should just allow both and advise VA employees not to participate if
they are uncertain, since the Hatch Act is implicated only if VA employees
participate. The Hatch Act exists for good reasons, but it clearly allows
outside groups to come to VA facilities to help our veterans exercise
their right to vote.
"VA employees, like all federal employees, have been required to follow
the Hatch Act for decades, and I see no basis for deciding now that VA
employees cannot be trusted to do so. I will continue to work with my
colleagues and VA to find a reasonable solution that honors our veterans."
Under the current policy, which Secretary Peake has the authority to
revise, Veterans Affairs broadly prohibits third-party organizations from
conducting voter registration drives at VA facilities. Recently, VA has
received criticism for this prohibition, and been urged to allow
non-partisan voter registration activities.
Secretary Peake's letter in response to Senators Akaka, Feinstein and
Kerry:
http://akaka.senate.gov/public/Peake-to-Akaka.pdf
The Senators' original letter to Peake:
http://akaka.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Pres
sReleases.Home&month=7&year=2008&release_id=2284
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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