Voter registration ban at VA facilities decried

HARTFORD, Conn. – Maine has joined several other states in demanding the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 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” and because of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities with government resources or on government time.

“The practice of banning voter registration drives at veterans facilities is a slap in the face to people who have served, put their lives on the line and sacrificed the most for our fundamental freedoms,” Connecticut Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, a Democrat, said in a Friday news conference.

Bysiewicz and Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican, have launched a national effort to overturn the directive. They’ve been joined by secretaries of state from Ohio, Montana, Vermont, Rhode Island, Minnesota, Kansas, New Hampshire and Maine.

U.S. Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Daniel K. Akaka, D-Hawaii, also have sent a letter to Peake urging him to revise the directive.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal issued a legal opinion Friday, calling the VA directive “seriously confusing and misleading – even deceptive.” Blumenthal said there’s nothing in the Hatch Act that would affect nonpartisan activities.

“In my view, this directive should be withdrawn and revised immediately by the Department of Veterans Affairs because it is flawed and unfounded in law and fatally unfair in its restraint on veterans rights,” he wrote.

Pamela Redmond, spokeswoman for the VA Connecticut’s health care system, said the agency’s key concern is the involvement of partisan groups.

Her office is waiting for VA officials in Washington, D.C., to decide whether Bysiewicz’s request to demonstrate the use of new voting machines and to register voters at a VA hospital in West Haven are considered nonpartisan activities.

She estimated about 10 to 15 people “live” at the West Haven facility on a given day, staying in the geriatric wing or the hospice. Many of them are typically registered to vote in their hometowns, Redmond added.

Redmond provided The Associated Press with a form the VA requires people to sign if they help veteran patients with voter registration. It says volunteers and others can help veterans “in completing and mailing the form to register to vote or obtain an absentee ballot, or in completing the ballot itself.”

A VA spokesman would not comment on whether that form conflicts with the VA directive.

He referred to a written statement from Matt Smith, deputy assistant secretary for public affairs, who said the VA assists veterans in exercising their right to vote.

“The agency’s new directive requires each facility to establish written policies and procedures and to post information on voter assistance. In addition, VA volunteers will provide voter assistance to those veterans who request it,” he said. “We believe this best serves our patients’ needs and further aids our patients’ ability to vote, particularly those living in VA facilities.”

Blumenthal has given the VA a July 17 deadline to respond to his concerns. He said the state is prepared to take the matter to court, if necessary.