At the Gilbert Watch, a look back at the Keystone Cops approach by DOJ to guidance and enforcement of the MOVE Act.  DOJ is signaling that they may take a more aggressive approach, but the priorities and resources inside the Voting Section are primarily dedicated to fighting voter ID laws, Texas redistricting, and defending the constitutionality of Section 5.  As a result, actual voters take a back seat and the participation rate of overseas and military voters decreased in 2010.

To the story:  Remember the MOVE Act of 2009? It was signed by President Barack Obama in the fall of 2009. The intention was to “ensure that absent uniformed services voters and overseas voters are aware of their voting rights and have a genuine opportunity to register to vote and have their absentee ballots cast and counted.”

It required every state to send military voters their requested ballots no later than 45 days before an election, so that the time it takes to return a “snail mail” ballot would be received before the election was over. MOVE also required every military installation to have a voter registration office.

Sound good? Before the MOVE Act of 2009, only 5.5% of eligible military voters cast an absentee ballot that counted. In 2010, it was 4.6%. The disenfranchisement of our overseas military only got worse.

How did that happen?  By selective enforcement of Voting Rights laws under the Obama Administration and the Department of Justice. And by the Pentagon and the DOJ to be allowed to simply drag its feet.

It took the DOJ nine months after the MOVE Act became law to update its website with the new standard. As the 2010 election approached, the DOJ allowed states to widely ignore the MOVE act, so absentee ballots were not mailed out 45 days before the election. Many ballots weren’t counted, because they arrived after the election was over. Political appointees waited until three weeks after the 2010 election to issue the order to establish the voter registration offices.