The Justice Department said in a filing on Friday that the primary schedule proposed by the Texas Republican Party wouldn’t give enough time for military and overseas voters to participate in the election process in violation of the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act.
Here’s the kicker: conservatives — led by Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn — have long been on a crusade against the Justice Department for what they said was a failure to protect military voters under the MOVE Act.
Now it’s Texas’ Republican Party which would be violating the law. The party suggested on Jan. 23 that the court issue an order stating that ballots to voters subject to the MOVE Act should be mailed on March 9 “Notwithstanding the requirements of the MOVE Act,” even thought the election is supposed to be held on April 3.
Justice Department lawyers said that the Republican Party “has proposed shortening the amount of time that military and overseas voters will have to participate in the election” and that such proposals are in “conflict with UOCAVA’s explicit requirement that states transmit ballots to the voters protected under the act at least 45 days before a federal election.”
The reason Texas officials are on such a tight schedule is because the redistricting maps drawn by state legislatures and signed by Gov. Rick Perry haven’t been cleared under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which applies to states with a history of racial discrimination. Final arguments in the redistricting case had been scheduled in D.C. federal court on Monday, but there were increasing signs late Friday that the Texas Attorney General and the Mexican American Legislative Caucus might be able to strike some sort of deal.
DOJ’s attorneys say they “understand the State of Texas and its officials have important interests in being able to administer an orderly election following the resolution of the claims before the Court and recognize the timing challenges the Court and the parties now face.”
But they say it’s “essential that Texas’ UOCAVA voters, many of whom are deployed at home and abroad in service to our country, are provided the full opportunity to vote embodied in UOCAVA.”
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a D.C.-based reporter for TPM. Prior to joining TPM, he worked for a news website covering the Justice Department and was a researcher for Bloomberg News. His email address is ryan(at)talkingpointsmemo.com.
could it be that the gop is scared most of those military votes are for you know who and not mittens?
obama's doj is more concerned about getting obama elected than protecting the rights and freedoms of americans over gov't and big corporations practicing data mining
lamonth what are you on? this article is about the republican primary.
adam.x.hilllamonth
Yes, lamonth, why does Nobama hate America? Wait, what? Is that sentence even parsable? What is the crap about data mining and such? Whoosh!
lameonth; regurgitation is gross & that's all that you're doing by practicing your method of distract & destroy. If you really want to talk about the DOJ look up Alberto Gonzalez & spend some quiet time soaking in what a truly partisan, corrupt Attorney general looks like. I'm not sure where he falls on the long list of baby bush's constitutional failures but he's in the top three I'd say. Mine that!
lamonth speech to text no so good for blogging recommend you wait until you get back to moms basement and use computer thank you
"Here’s the kicker: conservatives — led by Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn — have long been on a crusade against the Justice Department for what they said was a failure to protect military voters under the MOVE Act."
__________
Well, lookit -- we never said Cornyn was especially bright; we vote for 'em down here 'cause they look the part. (I realize that doesn't explain Phil Gramm, but still. . . . )
tigone2001, since I'm a 60-year-old Texan, I got quite a chuckle at your comment regarding Phil Gramm. I immediately thought of some of our other leadng lights over the years. the late Governor Dolpjh Brisoe came to mind, who didn't exactly make the ladies swoon, though neither did he fighten little children (as far as I know). A much earlier, Texas' first lady governor, Miriam A. "Ma" Ferguson," a colorful figure, was hardly a candidate for Playboy Bunnyship, as the photo of her at the top left of this link reveals:
http://libguides.umhb.edu/content.php?pid=89934&am...
LOL! . . .
mekhongkurt Gawd, I love Texas history.
What's the attraction to Texas again? It's not the governance or the extremely arid climate. It's not the fairness, equality or religious freedom. The Gulf is now Hurricane alley with the extreme climate events that occur just about yearly now. They want to seceede, again, because I guess the good ole USA ain't quite good enough. **NOTE: where do seceeded states go?
leftflank Dude!? Big hats what more can you ask for?
leftflank The main attraction is no income tax. But if you buy a 200,000 house in Dallas, your taxes are $5000 and homeowners insurance is $2500, because the state won't regulate big insurance. For a family making $100,000 thats 7.5%.. not much of a bargain. But rich guys clean up, and regular Texans don't understand that they are the ones bearing the tax burden while the CEO at Exxon gets off scot free.
leftflank, as a native Texan, this grieves me to have to say, but were we to secede -- which, by the way, we do NOT have the right to do -- then I imagine we would plunge into being a banana republic, at best, a downward-spiraling Thrd World country, a worst. One soon either seeking readmission or at least some generous foreign aid out of D.C.
Before anyone screams bloody murder that Texas does have a right to secede, no we don't, nor did we ever. The final agreement gave Texas the right to split into as many as four states -- but even that right required Congressional approval out of Washington.
In any case, our secession in 1861 put paid to any previous agreement. Much as some of my fellow Texans would love to do so, we couldn't simply go back to any pre-Civil war areement for our admission into the Union in he first place, even had it included the right to secede later.
This information is readily available all over the Internet. If you don't trust it, or e-mail your elected and other officials in Texas and Washington.
I've always thought that for Texans to insist the have the right to indpendence is somewhat akin to had Germany after World War II trying to insist on some provision of the treaty ending World War I be used, since it was more to their liking. But such a provision would no more have been in the Treaty of Versailles than the mythical right to secede ever existed for Texas, pre- OR post-Civil War.
Oh boy! Can't wait to here the Texas Republican delegation in the house rip Obama for politicizing the Military and trying to usurp Texas' sovereign right to do whatever they want to skew federal elections. LIVE FREE OR WHATEVER!
Both Houses -- in Washington, and in Austin. As well as in both Senates, particuarly the Texas one.
Be curious to know the percentage of Latinos here and abroad which makes up the military eligible to vote in Texas.
felicitymb, I am Texan, and hadn't even thought about that angle. That must be a fascinating statistic, indeed.
Probably not one my "esteemed" Governor Perry and his buddies (including Senator Cornyn, lest we forget) wouldlike to talk about, I would venture to guess.
Wonder if anyone keeps track of the ethnic identities of our military personnel by state? (I haven't the faintest idea.)
I just read the MOVE Act and it appears that the act states: "The Department of Defense determines whether to grant waivers to states that are unable to comply with the MOVE Act requirement to mail ballots by the 45th day before a federal election. This year, 12 states applied for waivers. Denied Waivers: Alaska, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Wisconsin. Approved Waivers: Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Washington. Withdrawn Waiver Request: Maryland." So, if the election is supposed to be held on April 3rd, and they want them to be mailed on March 9th, it seems they've already given them extra time. And, Texas didn't apply for a waiver. Just sayin
lisvard S'lot like Perry and Gingrich not remembering to apply for the Virginia primary and being rejected when they tried to get put back on. Darn! There are just SOOO many things going on in my life right now! Who can remember?
Well, they're just gonna vote with their emotions and not elect someone who wants a full scale invasion of Iran! How can we elect a chickenhawk warmonger when you have actual combat veterans voting?!
The GOP/TP knows they are not getting the military vote under Obama. I think the DOJ did this in many states, possibly NY as well due to the GOP/TP voter suppression efforts.
Hope the military remembers for a long long time who wanted to validate their votes and who wanted to eliminate their votes.
GOBAMA and DEMS 2012! GO DOJ!
louisegertrude Scott Gessler the Republican Secretary of State for Colorado tried something of this sort in his state but was quickly slapped down by among others county clerks of both political persuasions who persisted in mailing ballots to serving military despite Gessler's attempts to derail the process. The Republicans are determined to exclude from voting anyone who's not reliably wingnut.
louisegertrude I agree with the sentiment but that's the first and probably only time I will ever see a "GO DOJ!" chant at the bottom of a comment ANYWHERE online.... Um Bravo I guess.
The DOJ needs to protect us all from the Republicans.
mfoss53 Protect yourself! Remember that the DOJ will inevitably be run by the GOP again (not in Nov but eventually...) Don't rely on any political party to "protect" you......
Just sayin....
andrewrbussieremfoss53 Yep, the Republican party has effectively politicized every arm and branch of government, from the executive to the judicial. They've reduced their party to basically a sports team whose is sole goal is to win. They have no interest in governing for any other purpose.
Actually, I haven't really thought of them as a sports team, really. More like an entire division of hitmen and -women.
lets see, the gop are howling about voter fraud by the dems which is not true, but the gop are deliberately and willfully trying to suppress votes with groups of people they feel will vote for the dems in november. and crying foul when the doj steps in to stop them. they have no shame.
What is it with the Republicans and counting votes? It's like they've got allergies, or something.
peterprinciple Actually, they don't want (certain) people to vote period. That way they don't have to count them.
tiowallypeterprinciple Or cover up the fact that they lose them. Ala florida in 2000.
And my mother sends email saying Obama is cutting healthcare for Iraq War Vets because they volunteered. When I raised this as a problem I had with BushCo in 2004, her silence was deafening. But that is all forgotten as it was so not an issue. And being senile is very helpful when hating on our president.
cranky712 President Obama has increased the VA budget every year since getting in office. The Fox crowd would have you believe otherwise. Look into Veterans for Obama and you will see he's done more for us that any president in a long time.
cranky712 My mom, a life-long republican, was similar in the face of criticism of Reagan and both Bushes. Although we were very poor during much of my life and she needed at different points to count on social programs to get by, she consistently voted against her own best interests.
She cast her first democratic vote for Barack Obama in the 2008 primary, then again in the general. She was so very proud of those votes! In 2010, she proudly voted democratic again in the WI races. She was nearly 90 when that light went on for her ... which party really gave a darn about her needs. I know she would have voted for a second term for President Obama this year too.
jlacranky712 Very touching.
Nice to know there is hope for her kind.
jlacranky712 Sorry about your loss. I would have liked your mother.
If anyone tries to tell me Republicans believe in American values, I start talking about what they try to do every 10 years with redistricting.
Can we just outlaw Texas?
jonez Can we trade it in for another territory or district?
mrbobdobalina jonez Heck, I'd settle for a couple of third round picks in the NFL draft and a player to be named later.
mrbobdobalinajonez How about the Baja Peninsula?
valgal23mrbobdobalinajonez If we're going for a peninsula why not the Yucatan? Baja's nice enough but sort of flat, uninteresting and generally treeless.
mrbobdobalinajonez Let's swap Texas for Canada, waddya say?
jonez Easy - Make Puerto Rico the fiftieth state and texas a territory.
couseretjonez with NO federal representation or voting rights! This wonderful country would be so much better off.
This shows the republicans sweating
Way to show appreciation to our veterans!
So what's the penalty for violating this particular federal law? A polite request not to do it again?
rp10007 Well, though it pains me to rain on your knowing-cynicism parade, first a federal court orders the relevant officials to comply and, if they don't, federal marshals come and haul their asses off to jail and fines the crap out of them until they do.
But according to the Little Dummer Boy, people in Texas can't vote until they are 21. And it's not as though a politician who's been governor for over a decade wouldn't know what the voting age was.
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