In a previous post, we discussed the merits of Colorado counties sending absentee ballots to inactive voters.  Inactive voters were placed on the inactive list for a very good reason: because they failed to vote in a number of election cycles, failed to respond to mailings, or there were mailings (even ballots) returned to the elections office as undeliverable. In some cases, the post office notifies election officials that the individual has moved to another jurisdiction with a forwarding address where the voter may be entitled to vote.

So, it is interesting how very wrong the ranking member of the Committee on House Administration, Elections
Subcommittee can get an elections-related
issue involving absentee ballots to overseas military voters, and then demagogue the issue ~ alleging *gasp* voter suppression.  In a nutshell, the press release states:  “Gonzalez Condemns Move to Deny Ballots to Military Voters.”  It is ironic that a Texas Congressman would condemn a Colorado Secretary of State Gessler considering the former actually participated in hearings and presumably voted for the MOVE Act that essentially did the same thing for which he now condemns Gessler, except on a national level.  Just as he failed to read the health care bill, he apparently didn’t read or understand the MOVE Act.     

The voting reforms of the MOVE Act removed the senseless previous requirement to send absentee ballots to overseas military voters for up to two federal cycles, regardless if a past ballot sent to the voter has been previously returned as undeliverable or some other reason the voter would not ordinarily receive a ballot (i.e. registration made inactive, or some other state requirement for an updated absentee ballot request.)  As a member on the Committee on House Administration itself, Gonzalez should have been aware that election officials actually requested that this section of the military voting law be modified for the overall good of the voter and efficient election administration.  The Congress agreed. 

I am sure the goal of the Congressman Gonzalez is not to suppress the vote of military voters by sending useless ballots to the last known undeliverable (but wrong) address of an military voter with little to no chance of return, thereby disenfranchising the voter.  Instead, the mutual goal (we hope) is to correctly update the outdated address of the overseas military voter which allows him or her to fully participate in the election.  In the end, Congress listened to the experts and made this prudent change in the MOVE Act.