Captain Sam Wright writes at Pajamas Media that one solution to the military voting mess of 2010 is to amend the statute to include a private right of action. That way, soldiers and sailors won’t have to rely on the Department of Justice to bring timely lawsuits. That seems to be a view gaining traction in Congress. Multiple committees (and subs) are looking toward hearings about the 2010 mess that was supposed to cure the 2008 mess.
The problem with the law, as written, is that it gives the Eric Holder Justice Department monopoly authority over protecting military voters. That doesn’t work for a variety of reasons about which Congress will be fully informed. And surely the DOJ wouldn’t oppose expanding the rights of military voters to bring their own lawsuits, would they? Wait and see. If they do, they will do so at their own public relations peril. It would be smarter not to object lest the details of the 2010 mess be revealed even more vividly. January will be here before we know it.
As written, the statute is ambiguous about who has the right of action. It says that the AG does have that right, but not whether anybody else does or does not. Apparently the federal district court in Maryland has just said that a private party can enforce it.