Let my people vote: Don’t let the DOJ make service members wait another 58 years

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder dated July 26, 2010, Senator John Cornyn of Texas (principal sponsor of the MOVE Act) wrote:

Unfortunately, according to the minutes of the 2010 Winter meeting of the National Association of Secretaries of State (‘NASS’), the Deputy Chief of the Voting Section [of the Department of Justice] told state election officials that the legislative language regarding waivers is not completely clear, that the provisions of law are ‘fairly general,’  that it is ‘somewhat of an open question as to what types of information’ a state must submit to be granted a waiver, that it is unclear whether waivers, once granted, are valid for only one election or permanently, and that litigation to enforce the provisions of the MOVE Act against the states ‘is always the last resort.’ If these are the positions of the DoJ, then they fly in the face of the clear statutory language, undermine the provisions in question, and jeopardize the voting rights of our men and women in uniform.

Senator Cornyn’s fear, which I share, is that DOJ’s undue patience with non-complying states will mean that America’s sons and daughters who are away from home and prepared to lay down their lives in defense of our country will have to wait another 58 years to enjoy a basic civil right that the rest of us take for granted.

I invite the reader’s attention to the eloquent opening paragraph of President Truman’s 1952 letter to Congress:

About 2,500,000 men and women in the Armed Forces are of voting age at the present time.  Many of those in uniform are serving overseas, or in parts of the country distant from their homes.  They are unable to return to their States either to register or to vote.  Yet these men and women, who are serving their country and in many cases risking their lives, deserve above all others to exercise the right to vote in this election year.  At a time when these young people are defending their country and its free institutions, the least we at home can do is to make sure that they are able to enjoy the rights they are being asked to fight to preserve.

I respectfully submit that President Truman’s words are as true today as they were in 1952, and that those words should be directed to Attorney General Holder and to today’s state legislators and state and local election officials.  With their help, America’s service members will not have to wait until 2068 to vote.

Captain Samuel F. Wright, JAGC, USN (Ret.) is the Director of the Reserve Officers Association Service Law Center.