Veterans Advocates Skeptical of New V.A. Registration Policies

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.

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