VA Clarifies Voter Registration Regulations

VA Clarifies Voter Registration Regulations

WASHINGTON (Sept. 8, 2008) - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
announced today it has clarified its policy on assisting veterans' voter
registration activities, with particular focus on inpatients and
residents of VA community living centers, domiciliaries and patients
with limited access to community voter registration resources.

The Department will welcome state and local election officials and
non-partisan groups to its hospitals and outpatient clinics to assist VA
officials in registering voters at VA facilities. Such assistance,
however, must be coordinated by those facilities in order to avoid
disruptions to patient care.

"VA has always been committed to helping veterans exercise their
constitutional right to vote, which they defended for all Americans
while serving their nation," said Dr. James B. Peake, Secretary of
Veterans Affairs. "We've now established a uniform approach to helping
those of our patients who need assistance to register and to vote."

The policy requires that information about the right of VA patients to
register and vote, and other patients' rights, be posted in every VA
hospital, and that all VA patients be provided a copy of these rights
when they are admitted to a VA facility.

Every hospital is now also required to publish a written policy on voter
assistance, allowing patients to leave the hospital to register and
vote, subject to the opinions of their health care providers. Patients
unable to leave the facility must be assisted to register and to vote by
absentee ballot.

In their written policies, VA hospital are required to establish the
criteria they will use to evaluate requests from outside agencies to
register voters, and to determine where, when, and how such registration
activities will be conducted. They will also develop procedures to
coordinate offers of assistance from state and local governments and
from non-partisan organizations, and how to work with VA's Regional
Counsel offices to determine whether or not groups offering registration
help are non-partisan, as required by law.

Voluntary Service Program Managers at each of VA's 153 hospitals will be
responsible for implementing the new policy, and for providing timely
and accurate voting information to veterans cared for at their
facilities. They will also obtain and maintain materials that are
needed to assist veterans with voter registration requirements.

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