Is the Obama Administration Trying to Surpress the Military Vote?

The Obama administration, via the Department of Justice (DOJ), may be attempting to lessen the number of service men and women who vote using absentee ballots.  Last October, Congress passed the MOVE (Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment) act.  The MOVE act helps ensure that members of the military serving overseas will have their votes counted.  Some of the key elements of the Move act are,

• elimination of notarization requirements for overseas ballots in the states that still require this, as well as other registration requirements imposed specifically on overseas and military voters.
• all states must make voter registration and absentee ballot applications available electronically, as well as General Election information. MOVE also requires that all states make a Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot, matching the design and functionality launched last year by the Overseas Vote Foundation, available online for when official ballots don’t arrive in time.
• all states must plan, as of this year, for a 45-day window for the ballot “round-trip”.

The MOVE act will definitely increase the amount of military votes in subsequent elections… which is bad news for Democrats.  The military vote is historically conservative and I’m sure Democrats would love to minimize a block of voters who usually vote Republican.  It appears the Obama administration is doing just that.  The Department of Justice is actively helping states file waivers to avoid having to follow the new law.  I may be wrong but I thought the Department of Justice was supposed to enforce the law, not teach people how to avoid following it, right?

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), a cosponsor of the MOVE act, sent a letter to Attorney General Holder stating his concern that the DOJ is not enforcing the law.  In the letter Sen. Cornyn mentions comments made by a DOJ official that the MOVE act was “unclear” and that enforcing it was the “last resort.”  Cornyn then asked Holder to make sure states are obeying the law.  It really says something when a Senator has to ask the Attorney General of the United States to enforce the law.

Recently, the DOJ dropped the voter intimidation case involving the New Black Panthers because they evidently don’t investigate claims of black on white voter intimidation.  Now, the DOJ is trying to minimize the military vote by not enforcing the new law.  What is going on in the DOJ and the Executive Branch in general?  Is this still the United States of America where we believe that everyone’s vote should be counted?  I’m not sure anymore.

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