[nfb-talk] FW: [CCB-L] Veterans Department Creates Roadblocks toVoter Registration for Injured Vets

[Wm. Ritchhart]

This article should enrage all Americans.  I agree that in general it is
the responsibility of the individual to get him or herself registered to
vote.  However when a citizen has gone into harm's way for this Nation
and has suffered injuries that make the exercise of this responsibility
difficult, it is the obligation of our Government to facilitate this
basic American right.  

James B. Peake should be glad I am not President of the United States.
I would remove him from his office.  I am certain that I could find
another American who would ensure that no American who serves this
country is disenfranchised, just because they suffered injury while
serving our country.  




William
 

-----Original Message-----
From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Eric Calhoun
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 3:31 PM
To: acb-l at acb.org; blindtlk at nfbnet.org; nfb-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nfb-talk] FW: [CCB-L] Veterans Department Creates Roadblocks
toVoter Registration for Injured Vets



Original Message: 
From: "Ardis Bazyn" <abazyn at bazyncommunications.com>
To: <CCB-L at googlegroups.com>
Subject: [CCB-L] Veterans Department Creates Roadblocks to Voter
Registration for Injured Vets
Date: 
Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:07:44 -0700

Registration for Injured Vets

Veterans Department Creates Roadblocks to Voter Registration for Injured
Vets

By Steven Rosenfeld
AlterNet

Thursday 10 April 2008

VA Secretary says registering voters in VA facilities is a "partisan"
distraction.

On the same day the Pentagon's commander in Iraq told the Senate
that new troop withdrawals could not considered be 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
8th letter to Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and John Kerry (D-MA). 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 non-partisan 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 non-partisan 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 VA campus in Menlo
Park, California, 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."
     Ardis Bazyn
Available for inspirational speaking, writing, and coaching:
www.bazyncommunications.com
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