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Monday, August 11, 2008

Update on VA Policy on Voter Registration, Appeals Court Denies Lawsuit

A federal appeals court issued a decision in Preminger v. Peake upholding the Veterans Administration (VA) policy that bans voter registration drives in its facilities. The court decided that the rule does not violate the First Amendment.

Four years ago Santa Clara County Democratic Central Committee tried to conduct voter registration at a VA facility and was stopped due to a rule that prohibits partisan political activity at VA hospital. The committee sued in 2004 charging that the policy violated the First Amendment.

The appeals court agreed that voter registration drives could compromise a facilities' ability to provide health care services to veterans. The court decision stated that "allowing one political party access to the Menlo Park campus would invite requests from other political parties to do the same and that supervising numerous voter registration campaigns would be difficult and time-consuming, diverting resources vital to the residents' treatment."

Meanwhile in Connecticut, according to the New Haven Register "Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz and state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal declared a victory for democracy when Roger Johnson, administrator for the two federal veterans' medical centers in Connecticut, agreed to allow Byziewicz to conduct a voter education session and registration inside the West Haven facility Thursday. Johnson, however, said Bysiewicz only would be allowed to register in-patients at the hospital and the handful of veterans who live there."

The New York Times features an op-ed written by Bysiewicz in which she bluntly states that because of the VA's policy, "too many of our most patriotic American citizens — our injured and ill military veterans — may not be able to vote this November."

The department offers two reasons to justify its decision. First, it claims that voter registration drives are disruptive to the care of its patients. This is nonsense. Veterans can fill out a voter registration card in about 90 seconds. Second, the department claims that its employees cannot help patients register to vote because the Hatch Act forbids federal workers from engaging in partisan political activities. But this interpretation of the Hatch Act is erroneous. Registering people to vote is not partisan activity."

"The federal government should be doing everything it can to support our nation's veterans who have served us so courageously. There can be no justification for any barrier that impedes the ability of veterans to participate in democracy's most fundamental act, the vote."

For more information, see this latest Watcher article, Voter Registration Barriers Challenged in New Mexico, at Veterans Affairs.