Dept. of Veterans Affairs Changes Policy on Helping Wounded Soldiers Register to Vote

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Dept. of Veterans Affairs Changes Policy on Helping Wounded Soldiers Register to Vote

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. Posted May 1, 2008.

The VA bows to public and political pressure, but soldiers still must ask for help.


The Department of Veterans Affairs has issued new rules allowing former soldiers living at VA facilities to ask for help with registering to vote and voting -- a decision that could increase participation in the 2008 election by wounded Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans.

The new rules, to be published on government websites this week, reverses a years-long policy where the VA opposed helping patients and others living on VA campuses -- notably homeless veterans -- with voter registration and voting, saying to do so would be a partisan activity.

"It is VHA policy to assist patients who seek to exercise their right to register and vote," said the new policy, issued by the Veterans Health Administration as Directive 2008-023. "This policy establishes a uniform approach to assembling and providing information on voter registration and voting to veterans who request it."

Under the directive, VA facilities "must ensure" there is a "written, published policy on voter assistance" that: allows patients to leave the facility to register and vote, subject to their physician's approval; provides help for registering and voting by absentee ballot; and informs patients that voting assistance is available. It states, "This also needs to be done when the patient is admitted to the facility."

The directive says any VA "personnel (including volunteers)" must review and sign a "Political Activities Fact Sheet" provided by the Office of General Counsel. It also says "any request by an outside organization to hold a voter registration drive on VA property" will be reviewed by the VA's attorneys, but does not state how quickly the agency must respond to registration drive requests.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/democracy/84050/?page=entire

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