By Dennis Camire, Gannett News Service 

WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs should lift its ban on voter registration drives at its hospitals, clinics and homes to allow nonpartisan groups to help vets sign up, three Democratic senators and 10 secretaries of state said Thursday.

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 Sen. Dan Akaka, D-Hawai'i, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

Ten secretaries of state, who oversee state voting laws, also wrote a letter Thursday asking Peake to allow nonpartisan voter registration drives and permit federal employees to help veterans register.

In May, the VA issued a directive banning 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.

The directive also states that agency's policy is "to assist patients who seek to exercise their right to register and vote" and outlines assistance to be offered, including help with registering and voting absentee.

"We do have very active programs to ensure that our inpatients, particularly nursing home patients, get the help they need to register and vote," said Phil Budahn, spokesman for the VA, which expects to treat about 825,000 veterans as inpatients in its facilities this year.

Akaka and 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 their letter, the senators said federal employees could assist in nonpartisan voter registration drives without violating the law.

"There is no reason why the VA should not proactively assist veterans in exercising their right to vote," Feinstein said. "To do otherwise is an insult to the sacrifices these men and women have made for our country."

Other groups, such the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the League of Women Voters and the Rock the Vote campaign, are also critical of the VA ban.

"Voting is an American right," said Joe Davis, spokesman for the VFW. "Why the VA would not want to help fellow Americans exercise that right is a puzzle."

Chrissy Faessen, deputy director for Rock the Vote, a get-out-the-vote group that targets young people, said the VA should be helping veterans to register and vote and that includes allowing outside groups to conduct voter education drives.

"Young people are the ones fighting the wars, and they know what is going on so to put a barrier up to their ability to register and vote is wrong," Faessen said.

On June 30, Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz and the state's attorney general, Richard Blumenthal, attempted to register voters at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in West Haven and were turned away by VA officials.

"I decided to protest the May directive," Bysiewicz said. "I thought it was unconstitutional and a slap in the face to the people who have sacrificed the most and fought the hardest for our most fundamental freedoms.

On Thursday, Bysiewicz and Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed launched a national bipartisan effort among secretaries of state with a letter to Peake asking him to allow nonpartisan voter registration drives.

In the letter, the state officials argued that historically, voter registration drives have been critical in ensuring that veterans in VA facilities get the opportunity to register to vote. Many veterans are not able to get out on their own, making registration that much more difficult, the letter said.

The 10 secretaries of state are from Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont, in addition to Connecticut and Washington.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-07-10-va-drives_N.htm