Why Can't We Register Our Vets to Vote?

As someone who wore the pickle suit back when I was young and immortal, I get especially worked up when any person, place, or thing stands in the way of a veteran having easy access to one of the rights or privileges that he or she swore to protect against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

Which leads me to James Peake, the secretary of Veteran's Affairs. Seems that this gentleman issued a directive banning nonpartisan voter registration drives at federally financed nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and shelters for homeless veterans.

The reasons given? Well, voter registration would just about make it impossible to care for the patients. I mean, it takes all of about two minutes to fill out that damned card!

That excuse doesn't work? No worries...they have another to fall back on. Employees can't help the patients register because the Hatch Act specifically forbids federal workers from engaging in partisan political activities. I don't think anyone want to tell them to which party to register their affiliation, so how can that be partisan political activity as defined in Hatch? In fact, it says right here that one of the permitted activities is assisting in voter registration drives.

Well, how about allowing voter registration folks to come to the facilities and run the registrations. Then you don't have any conflicts at all from what I can see.

Something doesn't smell quite right here. Twenty-one secretaries of state have asked Peake to lift the restrictions and allow our veterans to register to vote at their facilities. After all, if you're not willing to support our troops, doesn't that make you someone who is aiding the enemy and therefore show that you want us to lose our war on terror?

UPDATE 9/9/08: The Department of Veterans Affairs finally announced that that it would no longer ban voter registration drives among veterans living at federally run nursing homes, shelters for the homeless and rehabilitation centers across the country. Score one for the good guys.