Fight Over the VA's Ban on Voter Registration Heads to Court

Posted by Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet at 4:23 PM on July 18, 2008.

The state of Connecticut may file a federal lawsuit to force the Department of Veterans Affairs to allow voter registration drives, Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz said Friday.

"Time is of the essence," she said. "We have 109 days left before the election. The (Connecticut) Attorney General and I are looking at possible legal action. It is fair to say that is very likely."

Bysiewicz' comments came a day after she was notified by U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake that the VA would not permit voter registration drives at its campuses and was imposing new restrictions on who could contact veterans at VA facilities to help them register to vote.

"It is a disguised no," Bysiewicz said, referring to the VA's new policy that only "Voluntary Service" officers at VA facilities would be allowed to register the former soldiers. "It is legal mumbo-jumbo that appears to grant something but really takes away everything."

Anytime a person moves they must update their voter registration. This includes former soldiers who are receiving care at VA facilities.

In recent weeks, Bysiewicz has lead a bi-partisan effort among top state election officials to pressure the VA to become a voter registration agency like motor vehicle departments, which ask clients if they want to register during its regular course of business. More than 20 of these officials have signed a letter to the VA, urging a change in policy.

The Connecticut secretary of state is especially angered by the VA policy because the reasons cited by the VA for opposing voter registration drives -- they would interfere with its medical mission and be partisan -- have never been an issue at Connecticut's state veterans home in Rocky Hill.

"Registrars' visit there three or four times a year," she said, saying they assist with voter registration, filling out absentee ballot applications, and providing rides to nearby polling places. She also said the VA has been "a voter registration agency" under prior presidential administrations.

Bysiewicz said the VA's policy of only allowing "Voter Service" officers to regulate voter registration activities banned state and local election officials from helping veterans, and also violated the federal Help America Vote Act, which Congress passed following the 2000 presidential election.

She said the VA wanted her to sign a "waiver" saying the state assented to the agency's new voter registration policy - but Bysiewicz said that she wound not, as that would be surrendering her responsibility to oversee Connecticut elections.

With the election less than four months away, Bysiewicz said the only option to help those at VA facilities to register to vote was litigation.

"I think that will be the only option," she said.