When Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. installed Thomas E. Perez as assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, he emphasized the importance of being ready to confront 21st-century issues and doing so in a timely manner. He warned his new assistant, "The quest for justice must be an impatient thing - for we all know what happens when justice is delayed. So I am an impatient attorney general." Military voters know what happens when justice is delayed.
Notwithstanding overwhelming evidence in 2008 that military voters needed at least 45 days to receive and return their absentee ballots, the Voting Section of the Civil Rights Division stood by as more than 20 states failed to provide military voters with sufficient time to vote. This failure alone cost thousands of military members the right to vote.
Thousands more may suffer the same fate in 2010 despite congressional efforts to modernize military vote law. The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act (MOVE Act), which was passed in 2009, was the most significant voter reform in 25 years. At its core, the law requires states to mail absentee ballots at least 45 days before an election and requires states to use electronic delivery mechanisms to expedite the delivery of absentee ballots to military members. Now, 10 months after its passage, nearly one-third of the states have failed to implement one or more of the key provisions of the MOVE Act. At least 11 states (Hawaii, New York, Delaware, Alaska, Washington, Maryland, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Colorado) and the District of Columbia have not implemented the 45-day deadline for mailing absentee ballots. At least five states (Alabama, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Missouri and New Hampshire) have not implemented the electronic-delivery requirement under the MOVE Act. |