Cold War Veterans Blog

Is VA Picking Sides?

From IAVA Blog


For at least four years, since the 2004 presidential election when a veteran, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., was the Democratic Party nominee, the Department of Veterans Affairs has blocked efforts to help U.S. soldiers register to vote at its facilities in all 50 states.

“This is politically motivated voter suppression,” said Scott Rafferty, an attorney based in Washington, D.C., who has fought the Veterans Administration (VA) in federal courts since 2004 over the right to assist veterans, including homeless vets, to register to vote at the VA campus in Menlo Park, California. “The VA is making its open campuses, even those where hundreds of homeless and aging veterans live, First Amendment-free zones.”

It’s not a one-sided argument. The VA should encourage the pointiest part of the political spear - troops and Veterans - to participate in that process. As the article points out, lots of activities that border on the political or social happen at VAs, which often share, rent, or load facilities out. There’s no reason that a non-partisan voter registration couldn’t occur there.

“The Department of Veterans Affairs should serve as an example ensuring that every veteran that passes through its doors is afforded the opportunity to register and vote,” said Randy L. Pleva, Sr., president of Paralyzed Veterans of America. “It is through the exercise of our franchise that we unsure the perpetuation of our democracy and serve as an inspiration to others throughout the world.” Neither Rafferty nor congressional staffers could estimate how many veterans might register to vote at VA facilities.