When I returned from Vietnam, I spent a year at Kingsbridge Veterans Administration hospital in the Bronx, learning how to live life as a paraplegic confined to a wheelchair. Life magazine called the conditions in my ward a "medical slum." My closest friend found the despair, coupled with indifference from the hospital and the Veterans Administration, too much to bear. He committed suicide. So did several other vets I knew.
In the aftermath of the presidential primaries, stories of unprecedented voter registration and turnout are drifting to the back burner. But with an exceedingly imbalanced electorate, the fight to create access to the voting rolls and enforce the voting rights of all Americans continues. With historic voter registration drives underway and a preview of the types of problems that could occur in November, the focus of the media is beginning to shift towards the less sexy, but crucial elements that work to maximize voter participation while ensuring eligible voters can cast their ballots and have them counted. In Project Vote's view, this is a welcome development since many of the potential issues require more time to sort out than is available if problems are noted only weeks in advance of the election. This week, election officials, advocates and a presidential candidate worked to assist in or restore voting rights for hospitalized veterans in Connecticut, minority citizens in Georgia, and former felons in Tennessee.
(Below, Chris rightly criticizes Clinton, Obama, and other Dems for fawning over John McCain, and his military record. Let's remember the true face of Republican contempt for those who serve. That's what this diary is about. - promoted by Paul Rosenberg)
Cross-posted at Project Vote's Voting Matters Blog Weekly Voting Rights News Update
By Erin Ferns
The ability of injured veterans to vote in November's presidential election rests in the hands of Bush Administration officials, who have so far refused demands from advocates and lawmakers that the Department of Veterans Affairs help hospitalized veterans register to vote.
"'It is an insult to those who have fought to spread democracy and freedom overseas to be denied the right to participate in their own democracy here at home,'" wrote Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) to the Department of Veterans Affairs in March. "'If each facility took a few simple steps to provide voter registration materials, the VA could do its part to guarantee access to voter registration.'"
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