Military/Overseas Voting

Iraq Vet Speaks Out Against VA's Voter Suppression

Paul Rieckhoff, of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Unloads on the 'Brain-Dead Bureaucrats Blocking Voter Registration at Vet Hospitals'...

By John Gideon on 8/16/2008 3:22pm PT

Guest Blogged by John Gideon, VotersUnite.org

In an article at Huffington Post, Paul Rieckhoff, the Executive Director of Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), has spoken out against the Bush Administration's ban on voter registration activities in our nation's Veterans Affairs facilities. Writes Rieckhoff:

The irony is almost too great. Disabled veterans, who have made such tremendous sacrifices in defense of democracy, are now being denied assistance in voting.

The VA is claiming that voter registration drives are partisan, and would interfere with the functioning of their facilities. But hundreds of nonpartisan organizations regularly participate in voter registration drives --- everyone from the League of Women Voters to the Elks Club. Helping people vote is a civic duty, not a partisan activity.

Readers of The BRAD BLOG will know, this is a very important issue for us and we thank Rieckhoff for adding his important voice to this most important of American issues.

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Article Categories: Military/Overseas Voting, Voter Registration, Dept. of Veterans Affairs

New Front in Republican War on Voting: Disabled American Veterans

By Brad Friedman on 5/9/2008 4:24pm PT

Now that they've made it as difficult as possible for those pesky 90-year-old nuns to cast votes, it's time to make sure that vets injured and disabled in Iraq and Afghanistan have as difficult a time voting as possible.

The Republican War on Voting, as directed by Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush out of the White House, continues to continue.

The new front: Disallowing registration drives, by non-partisan organizations at Veterans Administration facilities. That, despite an order issued in late April by the Department of Veterans Affairs that they would allow such activity, in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.

Apparently someone high up (we don't yet know who) found out about that, and ordered an about-face on the previous directive, leading the Veterans Health Administration's Under Secretary for Health, Michael J. Kussman, to announce this week that "Voter registration drives are not permitted" at their facilities, "due to Hatch Act requirements and to avoid disruptions to facility operations."

"The Department of Veterans Affairs has retreated on a recently announced policy to allow voter registration drives at its facilities where veterans' groups and others would assist wounded former soldiers to participate in the 2008 presidential election," writes Steven Rosenfeld over at AlterNet, where he points out that "the Hatch Act restricts political activities by federal employees."

Non-partisan voter registration drives by groups such as the League of Woman Voters, however, can hardly be considered "political activities by federal employees."

Senators such as Feinstein and Kerry, and disabled veterans groups, as you may imagine, are none too happy...

--- Click here for REST OF STORY!... ---

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Article Categories: John Kerry, Election 2008, Military/Overseas Voting, Diane Feinstein, Voter Registration, Republicans

BILL MAHER VIDEO: General Eaton Goes Off on Bush Administration in HBO Interview

Says Country Recovering From Constitutional Crisis, Thanks God the Democrats Now in Congressional Majority

Bush, Rumsfeld & Republicans Hit Hard...

By Alan Breslauer on 3/9/2007 9:35pm PT

Guest Blogged by Alan Breslauer

Retired Major General Paul D. Eaton took no prisoners tonight on Real Time with Bill Maher. Sadly, the General states that the problems at Walter Reed, which he blames on poor planning by the administration from the start, are the tip of the iceberg. An excellent companion piece is the General's NY Times Op-Ed, "Casualties of the Budget Wars" published Tuesday.

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Article Categories: Iraq War, Military/Overseas Voting, Accountability

PAPER: 'U.S. Soldiers' Overseas Votes Ripe for Fraud'

By Brad Friedman on 10/1/2006 8:05am PT

From Mercury News Thursday (Sorry, been running behind for some reason)...

Just weeks before the November election, the Pentagon is struggling to fix its system for handling the votes of soldiers overseas.

Yet experts in computer security and election technology say the Pentagon's current attempt to keep those ballots from being rejected in large numbers, as they have been in past elections, has created a system that is ripe for fraud.

During the next six weeks, thousands of service members are expected to fax or e-mail ballots over international communications networks that are susceptible to interception and tampering, putting those votes at risk.

"I can't for the life of me figure out how the Defense Department decided this is the right thing to do," said Doug Jones, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Iowa.

And here's more...

[V]otes sent to the Pentagon will be forwarded to a private contractor whose top executives have made political contributions to Republican Party organizations.

See the full story, for more...it gets even worse.

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Article Categories: Iraq War, Election 2006, Election Fraud, Military/Overseas Voting

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