Akaka calls on VA to lift ban on voter registration drives

By Dennis Camire
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs should end its ban against voter registration drives at its hospitals, clinics and homes to allow those by nonpartisan groups, three Democratic senators said today.

In a letter to VA Secretary James B. Peake, the senators said the agency should be proactive in helping nonpartisan groups register voters rather than hindering veterans from participating in the electoral process.

"Current VA policy makes it unnecessarily difficult for some veterans to participate in the electoral process," said U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Akaka of Hawai'i, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and one of the senators.

The senators were critical of a VA directive in early May that banned voter registration drives over concerns that they would disrupt operations and violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from participating in partisan political actives on official time or on government property.

Akaka and U.S. Sens. John Kerry of Massachusetts and Dianne Feinstein of California wrote that the current ban is "unnecessary and arbitrary and fails to recognize that veterans may need assistance in registering in order to exercise their constitutional right to vote."

In the letter, the senators said that federal employees could assist in nonpartisan voter registration drives without violating the law.

Reach Dennis Camire at dcamire@gns.gannett.com.

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