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UPDATE: 20 STATES PROTEST, MAY SUE VA OVER
VOTER REGISTRATION BAN -- Connecticut Attorney
General says VA is offering "disingenuous double
talk and bureaucratic gobbledygook."
For complete background on the battle to allow
voter registration on VA property, click here (story has backlinks)...
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfJUL08/nf071808-1.htm
Story here...
http://www.courant.com/news/local/
statewire/hc-18151547.apds.m0851.bc-ct--vetejul18,0,844926.story
Story below:
-------------------------
Conn. officials demand reversal of VA ban
Associated Press
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut officials say the state might sue the U.S.
Department of Veterans Affairs if it continues to block efforts to educate
and register voters in federal veterans' facilities.
State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Friday that VA officials
are offering "disingenuous double talk and bureaucratic gobbledygook" in
response to concerns voiced earlier this
 month
by his office and Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz.
Blumenthal said the state is sending a letter to the VA threatening
potential legal action if the agency does not meet its demands by Aug. 1.
Connecticut is among several states pushing the VA to reverse a policy
that blocks nonpartisan groups from holding voter registration drives in
veterans homes, hospitals and other VA facilities.
Veterans Affairs Secretary James P. Peake issued the directive May 5,
saying the registration drives are not permitted "to avoid disruptions to
facility operations." He also cited the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal
employees from engaging in political activities with government resources
or on government time.
Peake notified Bysiewicz in a July 15 letter that the VA welcomes the
assistance of local and state elections offices, but that the registration
and education efforts must be coordinated with local VA service offices at
each center.
"This policy is the result of careful deliberation and consideration for
the needs and rights of our patients, concerns about disrupting facility
operations and the need to ensure VA is not involved in partisan political
activities," he wrote.
Bysiewicz said the state has been repeatedly stymied when officials tried
to enter VA facilities to provide nonpartisan education to voters on how
to use Connecticut's new voting machines, including those specifically
designed to help disabled voters.
Many VA patients and residents are registered to vote in their hometowns
and can either cast ballots there or send in absentee ballots.
Those who vote in their home precincts will need to know how to use the
new machines and are entitled to the training to understand them,
Bysiewicz said.
Bysiewicz is among 20 secretaries of state protesting the VA's new policy.
Others include Ohio, Minnesota, Vermont, Montana, Idaho, Rhode Island,
North Carolina, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Maine, Kansas, Kentucky,
Oregon, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Missouri, Washington and the
District of Columbia.
-------------------------
posted by Larry
Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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