Secretaries of State Take Action: In response to more questioning from Senators Feinstein and Kerry, the VA has defended its position by claiming that allowing voter registration would interfere with its mission of serving veterans, and that doing so would also violate the Hatch Act which prevents public employees from engaging in political activities at work. This tortured reasoning seems to have laid bare the VA's true concern, which appears merely to be that veterans might vote in large numbers. In response, Secretaries of State Bysiewicz of Connecticut and Reed of Washington have brought together a bi-partisan group of Secretaries of State from across the country to demand that the VA open up its facilities to non-partisan voter education and registration activities. They are joined by Attorney General Blumenthal who has written a legal opinion attacking the VA's bogus justifications for the voter registration ban.The involvement of the Secretaries of State is important as they are responsible for ensuring that all eligible voters in their states have the opportunity to register and vote. This is no less important for veterans of our armed services, and shouldn't depend upon whether or not they reside at a VA facility. The reality here is that not only are our veterans being disrespected by the federal government, which shows no interest in helping them exercise their basic civic rights, but their voice is actively being silenced by a VA system that is supposed to be supporting them. Hopefully, as the states bring more pressure on the VA to reverse course, we will finally see some movement in the VA's unconscionable position.
You can read more on this here: http://www.progressivestates.org/content/871/cleaning-up-pollution-in-ports-to-save-lives#3
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