Democrat AG: It is Okay to Break Law and Disenfranchise Military Voters

Shortly before the Presidential Election of 2008, I felt that it was important that I highlighted the fact that Members of our Military are Being Disenfranchised. Several personal cases were documented in my posts, and I became more uneasy about the disenfranchising of military voters, who usually vote Republican and whose votes are usually not counted by Democrats. No accusations were made, but I did feel important questions were raised.

I returned to this theme in January of 2009 with my story Soldiers Deprived of Right to Vote, which discussed that according to a Pew study, Michigan doesn't allow soldiers fighting bad buys overseas enough time to get their votes in, and that in 2006, about two-thirds of the estimated 1 million ballots distributed to military voters were not counted because they weren't returned on time, came back too late or had other problems.

So it is with great anger that I read the story on Pajamas Media BREAKING: DOJ Undermines Pentagon, Allows Wisconsin To Ignore Military Voting Protections:

Today the Department of Justice effectively rewrote the 2009 MOVE Act designed to protect military voters. In a settlement reached with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, the Holder Justice Department allowed Wisconsin to mail ballots to overseas military voters only 32 days before the election, instead of the statutorily mandated 45 days.

The Pentagon had denied Wisconsin’s application for a waiver from the 45-day requirement: “The states granted waivers presented thorough and comprehensive plans to protect the voting opportunities for military and overseas voters,” Bob Carey, director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program, said in a statement. Wisconsin’s waiver application didn’t even come close to compliance with the MOVE Act. They wanted to send ballots only 29 days before the election. The folks at the Pentagon rightfully denied the waiver request.

But instead of aggressively suing Wisconsin immediately after the waiver denial, the DOJ engaged in secret negotiations. An immediate lawsuit would have strengthened the negotiating position of the DOJ as well as preserved various equitable legal arguments, including the argument DOJ waited too long to commence litigation. Instead of doing the right thing, the DOJ did the easy thing and reached a settlement with Wisconsin that undermined the Pentagon’s denial of Wisconsin’s waiver request.

The tough negotiating stance of the Holder DOJ extracted a whopping additional three days out of Wisconsin. Ballots will mail 32 days before the election instead of 29. A consent decree filed Friday will reflect this quisling agreement.

This is a disgrace, plain and simple. Military voters, their families and veterans organizations should be outraged at the Holder DOJ.

Democrats often say that they care about democracy and pretend like every vote matters, but again and again have demonstrated that when it comes to the votes of the members of our military, they couldn't care less. They work to shorten the length of time that military voters have to vote, they quibble about spending additional money and time putting together alternatives or mailing ballots overnight, and they break the law and then have Democrat AG's agree with the breaking of the law. It is a disgrace, and they need to be held accountable.