Congress must stop disenfranchisement of overseas personnel
About four brigades of American military personnel lost the right to have their votes count in the 2008 elections. It now appears the Obama Administrations Justice Department is willing to allow many of the same 17000 Americans fighting for us overseas to be
disenfranchised once again in November.
Sen. John Cornyn brought up the issue in a meeting Wednesday with Defense Department officials. Congress and the Defense Department need to step in to ensure this doesnt happen.
Military Voter Protection Project Director M. Eric Eversole accused his former employer the Justice Departments Voting Section of encouraging states to use waivers to get around a law Congress passed last year to address the problems with
overseas voting.
Sen. John Cornyn brought up Mr. Eversoles charges in a meeting Wednesday with Defense Department officials responsible for ensuring military voting rights.
The Texas Republican was one of the two lead sponsors of the legislation in question.
The statute requires that states mail absentee ballots to military personnel at least 45 days before an election ensuring there is sufficient time for them to reach far-flung
locales and be returned by Election Day.
Waiving the law effectively denies a states soldiers sailors and airmen the ability to exercise the most basic right of citizenship.
I was very encouraged by what the Defense Department is doing in terms of marketing the new system to military and civilian personnel overseas Mr. Cornyn told The
Washington Times singling out
Clifford L. Stanley undersecretary of defense for
personnel and readiness for praise.
But the bureaucracies at both the federal and state levels are agonizingly slow. And I am concerned with the process by which waivers are being granted. I want to make sure states arent being granted permission not to comply with federal law Cornyn said.
The authors of that law intended that the waivers be used in limited circumstances and only when other measures are taken to ensure the ballots are counted on time.
I want to make sure there is not a presumption that states dont have to comply Mr. Cornyn explained.
Because Defense officials show deference to the legal advice provided by the Justice Department the waiver recommendations are troubling and deserve a full and complete investigation. Mr. Cornyn urged at a minimum that Justice officials require that states provide full transparency for all waiver applications placing the relevant documentation online for public review.
Experts agree that the 45-day requirement provides a reasonable amount of time both
for states to print ballots and for military personnel to return them in time for counting.
Deviations from this new system should be extremely rare and subjected to close scrutiny.
Unless that happens the reasons for suspicion regarding the Justice Departments actions will be legion.
