The latest press release from DOJ contains its recommended amendments to the MOVE Act.  After reviewing the language provided to lawmakers, the big news is how embarrassed officials at the DOJ and DOD so readily throw the nation’s state and local election officials under the bus.

Burned by multiple failures that resulted in disenfranchised military voters, a reactive and vindictive Civil Rights Division now tries to cover their lax preparation in 2010.  They try to shift the blame squarely onto the States by requesting civil penalties up to $110,000 be levied on election officials for the first violation of the MOVE Act.  And then for each additional violation thereafter, they want to be able to request civil penalties up to $220,000.

And the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) at the Department of Defense appears to fully support this proposal.  One must wonder if DOD and their “assistance program” will be required to pay these same excessive fines for their repeated failure to comply with the requirement to create installation Voting Assistance Offices under the MOVE Act.    

Instead of steadily enforcing the law with thorough investigations and timely litigation, the hapless leadership in the Voting Section are shifting the responsibility of their failures in 2010 to the election officials.  After delayed implementation and the dearth of guidance coming from DOJ after passage of the MOVE Act, these same failed bureaucrats are now proposing death penalty-type civil penalties to scare election officials into submission.