Among several other bogus charges made by the Romney campaign against President Obama, one of the latest has been that's he is trying to stop members of the military and veterans from voting in Ohio.
What here are David Axelrod attempts to correctly defend the suit by pointing out that it doesn't take vote away from Soldiers, it would give it back to everyone else.
Axelrod: "What that lawsuit calls for is not to deprive the military of the right to vote on the final weekend of the campaign. Of course they should have that right. What the suit is about is whether the rest of Ohio should have the same right. And I think it's shameful that Gov. Romney would hide behind our servicemen and women to try and win a lawsuit to deprive other Ohioans of the right to vote."
But immediately after that Wallace counters and cuts him off with this claim:
Wallace : Wait, David - 15 Military groups including the National Guard Association and AMVets are also "hiding being the Military" then because they're on Romney's side of this equation - and Federal Law gives special Consideration to Veterans so why not let Ohio do it?
Axelrod continues to defend the lawsuit, but he doesn't really explain why these groups are on Romney's side. He doesn't challenge Wallace's assertion that Federal Law already gives "Special Voting Rights" to the Military (from what I can,
it doesn't) but he also doesn't do one other thing.
He doesn't ask Wallace to explain why the one Military Association that focuses direction and almost entirely on the issue of Military Voting isn't including among those 15 Associations.
He doesn't explain why VOTE VETS isn't on Romney side too? Because y'know what - They're NOT. (Details over the flip).
This is what Vote Vets has to say about Romney's complaint by way of the Columbus Dispatch.
Experts: Romney’s wrong on Ohio early-voting suit
The Romney campaign and veterans groups opposed to a lawsuit in Ohio filed by President Barack Obama's campaign continue to portray the suit as an objection to certain voting privileges for military voters.
But two constitutional-law professors from different battleground states - Ohio and Florida - strongly disagree with the Romney campaign, and some other veterans groups say that Romney is supporting denial of voting access to hundreds of thousands of Ohio military veterans by opposing Obama's lawsuit.
Diane H. Mazur, author, military veteran and law professor at the University of Florida, called the Romney campaign's argument "inaccurate and silly," referring to federal voting-rights protections provided to military personnel by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act.
Guess what else they have? On the very top of their Issues Section is a Petition Against Romney's Position on Early Voting in Ohio.
Tell Mitt Romney To Stop Restricting Veterans’ Ability to Vote
Mitt Romney is trying to restrict voting rights for over 900,000 Ohio veterans (along with every other Ohioan). We need to fight back, to protect our democracy against this horrific move.
Well, gee, that doesn't sound very supportive of Romney's argument now does it?
Not even a little bit.
The law you have come out in support of would restrict the incredibly successful early-voting program in the state, and specifically do away with voting the weekend before election day, when many working Ohioans chose to vote early. For veterans, many of whom have jobs they cannot leave during a weekday, weekend voting has proved crucial. In 2008, almost a third of Ohio voters used the early voting program, including veterans.
We’ve already seen what a non-early-voting Ohio looks like. We saw it in 2004, when in many polling places had extremely long lines, and polling places were shut down before everyone in line had a chance to vote. Non-early voting, quite literally, resulted in the disenfranchisement of voters, including veterans.
That you want to go back to those days is disgusting and wrong. If you truly want to show you are ready to be Commander in Chief, you can start by not trying to hurt the ability of veterans to vote.
From what I can tell this Petition has been up for awhile and some of the language is technically outdated. Early voting on the last weekend before the election was, for a time, blocked for
everyone including veterans (Correction: It was only restored for
Active Duty Military Only - NOT VETERANS - there was a minor adjustment that restored that weekend for
veterans active duty service members and their families only, and it is that limited restoration that the Obama Administration would like to see expanded to include everyone again.
So of course, VOTE VETS is against it. Really against it.
When I first mentioned this Petition it had about 7,500 signatures on it. As of now it has almost 3 times as many 21,835.
Something tells me people who are in the Military and support the Military aren't going Romney's way on this.
No, sir - they just don't like it.
And I think it's about time that Jon Soltz went on the Radio or TEEVEE somewhere, or even wrote a DailyKos Diary and told people so, don't you?
Oh wait, guess what - HE DID!
He also did a Guest Blogger post on Thinkprogress about it. (Dude: Repost that HERE!)
When I read stories this weekend that said the Obama campaign was suing to restrict the voting rights of military in Ohio, my blood got boiling. Of course, Think Progress has already documented that story, inflamed by the Romney campaign, is patently false. In fact, the Obama campaign was suing to block an Ohio law which restricts a very successful early voting program in the state. The President’s campaign was trying to keep expanded voting rights in place for everyone, military included. So, why am I still so disturbed?
Because Mitt Romney, by supporting the Ohio law that would do away with three days of early voting for all but those covered under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voter Act (‘UOCAVA’), is supporting the restriction of voting rights for as many as 913,000 Ohio veterans. This includes military retirees with over 20 years of service and multiple deployments. In short, Mitt Romney supports efforts to make voting more difficult for the very people who have put their lives on the line after swearing an oath to uphold our Constitution and democracy.
Ok, Jon makes a point even I hadn't fully realized or considered. (And caused me to Edit above). Romney's position - no matter how you slice it - restricts the vote not just for average Ohioans,
it also restricts it for Veterans who are no longer on Active Duty. I can see why Jon's blood started boiling - now mine is too.
So should yours.
Vyan