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Military and Veteran Voting
By Adam Skaggs – 04/01/09
Looks like Minnesota's senate race isn't the only one that's going to keep us waiting for a winner: it'll probably be at least another two weeks before anyone knows who won yesterday's closely watched special election in New York's 20th Congressional district.
As the New York Times reports, after yesterday's balloting, a "mere 65 votes" separate the two candidates vying to fill the Congressional seat vacated by New York's newest Senator, Kristen Gillibrand. Given that razor-thin margin, it may not be possible to declare a winner until all the absentee ballots are counted—and that may not happen until after April 13th.
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Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Election Day Issues, Military and Veteran Voting, Voting Technology
By Adam Skaggs – 01/07/09
Well after President-elect Obama’s electoral college victory was a done deal, the results of the presidential election in Missouri were still too close to call, as election officials pored over the almost 3 million ballots cast in a race decided by about 3,000 votes. But as the tallying continued, there was one group of ballots that wasn’t being counted: those cast by members of the armed forces stationed overseas. That’s one lesson from a report issued this week by the Pew Center on the States.
The report, No Time To Vote: Challenges Facing America’s Overseas Military Voters, brings into sharp focus an inexcusable situation we’ve written about before: the significant—and sometimes insuperable—hurdles that troops voting overseas must overcome if they want their votes to count.
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Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Election Day Issues, Military and Veteran Voting
By Adam Skaggs – 09/19/08
Over the summer, we urged Congress to enact legislation that would reverse a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) policy that banned voter registration activities in VA facilities. The unjustifiable policy erected unnecessary hurdles that made it difficult for veterans to register and vote—so it was no surprise that veterans groups and voting rights organizations actively fought the policy.
The VA stubbornly refused to budge, though, leading lawmakers in Congress to proposed a statutory fix to the VA's bureaucratic blunder: the Veterans Voting Support Act. Along with many others, we called for prompt passage of the law in the House and Senate.
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Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Military and Veteran Voting, Voter Registration Drives
By Adam Skaggs – 08/01/08
You'd think it would be a matter of common sense that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which is supposed to "help veterans get the services they have earned," would do everything it could to help veterans vote. Especially since the VA's Patients' Rights rule specifically protects the right of every veteran in the VA's care to register and vote.
But the VA apparently doesn't agree: on May 5th, the VA issued a directive that banned voter registration drives from all VA facilities. The VA's explanation was that federal law prohibits partisan political activities by federal employees, but the ban goes far beyond anything that federal law requires. The ban prevents state and local election officials from conducting registration drives in VA facilities, and it also stops non-partisan, non-profit groups like the League of Women Voters from helping vets sign up to vote.
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Tags: Democracy, Voting Rights & Elections, Military and Veteran Voting, Voter Registration Drives
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