But, needing a photo ID in order to get on an airplane, buy alcohol or cash a check is fine.
While we have been distracted by this non-story, the focus has been taken away from the REAL voter suppression which is going on in this country against our own military.
Obama knew after he was first elected that he needed to plan ahead for his reelection campaign. He knew that while he enjoyed 54% of the military vote in 2008, that it was an anomaly as generally, military votes tend to lean Republican. This time around, polls suggest Romney has a 58% approval rating amongst military members while Obama is pulling a mere 34%.
So, how do you suppress the military vote?
You pass the M.O.V.E. Act. (Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act) which was one of the first things Obama did once he took office in 2009.
The MOVE Act requires the Pentagon to create an “installation voting assistance office” (IVAO) for every military base close to a combat zone. (Shouldn't the DoD be tasked with focusing on our DEFENSE?) IVAOs are supposed to help military personnel and make it easier for them to register to vote. But IVAOs can’t help anybody vote if they don’t even exist. See, Congress PASSED the M.O.V.E. Act, they just didn't FUND it.
But, that was kind of the plan, wasn't it? Over promise, under deliver.
A recent report by the Department of Defense’s inspector general found that in half of the 229 overseas military installations the DoD hadn’t set up the IVAO facilities that the law mandates. The DoD inspector general tried to contact each one of the 229 offices listed on the military's own voting assistance website. It only managed to get ahold of 114, less than 50 percent.
Pam Mitchell, the interim director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), told reporters that there's an explanation for that. She said,
"The contact information they used very simply was outdated. In a military environment, things change. Phone numbers change, email addresses change."
She doesn't know the phone number or email for half of our military bases?
So, how do you resolve this problem?
You do what the Obama administration always does...grant waivers.
The Defense Department has granted waivers to states that claim to be unable to mail absentee ballots to soldiers in the required 45 days before Election Day in order to ensure that the ballots will have time to be mailed back.
It is no surprise to learn that in 2010 all the jurisdictions that received waivers under the MOVE Act were won by President Obama in the 2008 election. (Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Washington).
Then we have the Department of Justice/Civil Rights Division to make sure that the newly passed law is being properly implemented, headed by Eric Holder. THIS Eric Holder:
As a freshman at Columbia University in 1970, future Attorney General Eric Holder participated in a five-day occupation of an abandoned Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) headquarters with a group of black students later described by the university’s Black Students’ Organization as “armed,” The Daily Caller has learned.
What could possibly go wrong?
Tom Perez from the Civil Rights division said,
"People who are serving our nation should have the right to cast a ballot and ensure that that ballot is counted. And so we will continue to vigilantly enforce [the] law to make sure that happens."
Let's see how Perez enforced the law in Illinois. In 2010, the democratically controlled state failed to mail ballots to its military members in nearly 1/3 of the state's counties. Perez allowed 6 of the 35 counties who were not in compliance to extend the postmark deadline one whole day, from November 1 to November 2. Voters in the other 29 counties were out of luck.
Disgusted by the actions of the Department of Justice, three House Republicans, including Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lamar Smith of Texas and Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Howard McKeon of California, wrote a letter to Perez saying public records and media reports "have painted a picture of widespread noncompliance" with the MOVE Act that was "aided and abetted by an enforcement authority that is entirely ineffective."
They continued:
"What we find most troubling about this situation is the Department of Justice, which has the sole and exclusive authority to bring actions to enforce [the law], not only failed to ensure compliance but apparently was not even aware when widespread noncompliance occurred."
Probably because Perez was too busy helping illegal alien sympathizers sue Arizona over alleged "racial profiling" and fighting to drop voter suppression cases involving the Black Panthers.
Fast forward to 2012.
The number of absentee ballots requested by military members has seen a SIGNIFICANT drop from previous years. And by significant, we mean game-changing.
Percent of military members requesting absentee ballots in 2012:
Florida 15.7%
Alaska 7.6%
Nevada 6.8%
Louisiana 6.4%
Colorado 6.2%
Illinois 5.3%
Ohio 3.3%
North Carolina 1.7%
Virginia 1.4%
Let's take a closer look at the numbers. The first number is the number of absentee ballot requests from 2008. The second number is for 2012:
Florida 86,926/37,953
Alaska 11,882/3878
Nevada 4919/1750
Louisiana 6796/1983
Colorado 5104/2986
Illinois 9858/3532
Ohio 13,317/1806
North Carolina 13,508/1859
Virginia 20,738/1746
To put these numbers in perspective, there are a total of 116,393 FEWER ballots requested and potential votes cast in 2012 compared to 2008. If Romney maintains his 58% military support, that means roughly 67,500 FEWER votes he will be able to receive.
This would translate to a loss of the following votes for Romney:
Florida -28,000
Nevada -1800
Colorado -1200
Ohio -6675
North Carolina -6750
Virginia -11,000
Is it any coincidence that most of the states listed above are swing states? Currently, these states show only a 1-2% difference in the polls between Romney and Obama. Don't forget, Florida went to George W. Bush by only a few hundred votes.
Aside from the obvious contempt that Obama has towards our military, why is there such an attempt to silence the military vote?
Because, soldiers can’t fight back.
The military can't openly complain about their Commander-in-Chief and they are too busy fighting for our freedom and our right to vote.
http://www.heroesvote.org/
