Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

We recently wrote about the Department of Veterans Affairs decision
to open its facilities to voter registration drives after months of
urging by voting rights groups and elected officials. This week,
however, "VA voter suppression continues," as AlterNet's Steven Rosenfeld wrote Tuesday, with voter registration efforts being blocked in California and the VA general counsel criticizing the pending Veterans Voting Support Act
(S. 3308), which would bolster federal protection of voter registration
opportunities for all wounded veterans. With just three weeks left to
register voters in most states, advocates say now is the time to
support voter registration efforts in VA facilities and, most
importantly, it needs to be explicitly protected from now on through
federal law.

"Credibility of VA on this issue is very
low right now," said Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. during a
hearing on the Veterans Voting Support Act on Monday, according to Rick
Maze of the Army Times.
VA general counsel Paul Hutter says that the VA is being "proactive" in
working with election officials and nonprofit groups to facilitate
voter registration, but that "VA still believes that some limits are
needed."

These limits were enforced this week at a San Francisco VA facility when the nonprofit group Veterans for Peace
was blocked from helping register voters in time for the 2008
presidential election. According to Rosenfeld, the group filed a legal
motion in California federal court Monday, claiming that VA was trying
to require Veterans for Peace members to go through the same screening
process that VA volunteers must go through - a process that would delay
registration efforts. "In contrast, the VA does not require screening
for most other visitors," Rosenfeld says.

Citing testimony from the Senate Rules and Administration hearing on S.
3308, the motion notes that of the 5.5 million patients in VA
facilities, volunteers registered only 350 patients and 64 outpatients.
"Those statistics show the VA's internal process of screening
volunteers who are then approved to register voters has had the effect
of suppressing the vote of injured veterans in 2008," writes  Rosenfeld.

As VA voter registration is administered solely at the whim of the VA
itself, advocates warn that, without a federal mandate to provide voter
registration and information to the nation's wounded veterans, their
right to vote could easily be lost. "VA can easily reverse course,
again, and issue another policy banning voting assistance," or could
"easily fail to implement their new policy," says Veterans for Common Sense executive director and S. 3308 supporter, Paul Sullivan.

Hutter claims a broad interpretation of the proposed law would open VA
facilities as a voter registration agency to the public, potentially
disrupting VA facilities and invading privacy of patients. Feinstein
says that the intent of the bill is not to serve the public and that
she is willing to make amendments.

"However, she did not see disruption as a major problem," Maze writes,
"because setting up a voter registration drive could be as simple as
putting a table in the lobby of a hospital or clinic."

In a recent New York Times
report announcing the new VA policy, writer Ian Urbina quotes Sen.
Feinstein: "Given the sacrifices that the men and women who have fought
in our armed services have made, providing easy access to voter
registration services is the very least we can do."

The companion bill to S. 3308, H.R. 6625 passed the House by voice vote on Wednesday.

Quick Links:

S 3308: Veterans Voting Support Act

Senate Committee on Rules and Administration

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.

H.R. 6625: Veterans Voting Support Act

Rep. Robert A. Brady, D-Penn.

Veterans for Peace

Veterans for Common Sense

In Other News:

Voter Database Glitches Could Disenfranchise Thousands - Wired

Electronic voting machines have been the focus of much controversy the
last few years. But another election technology has received little
scrutiny yet could create numerous problems and disenfranchise
thousands of voters in November, election experts say.

Ohio Republicans Use Lawsuit To Fight for State's Crucial Votes - Wall Street Journal

The Ohio Republican Party spearheaded a lawsuit Friday over a directive
from the office of Democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner that
would allow some early voters to register and vote on the same day.

Democrats accuse state GOP of hypocrisy - Wisconsin State Journal

Democratic Party Chairman Joe Wineke said Monday it was hypocritical
for Republicans to defend mistakes in their mailing databases while
pursuing a lawsuit over the state's flawed voter registration system.

ACLU: Mississippi felons denied voting rights - Associated Press

JACKSON - Convicted felons in Mississippi are denied their
constitutional right to vote in presidential elections, the American
Civil Liberties Union alleges in a federal lawsuit filed Friday.

Erin Ferns is a Research and Policy Analyst with Project Vote's Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD).