Sources within DOJ tell ElectionLawCenter that Voting Section Chief Chris Herren will reverse course and inform election officials that enforcement of the MOVE Act will be the top enforcement priority of the Voting Section in the 2012 election.   This is a reversal of current policy where Voting Section and political appointees in the Civil Rights Division have previously indicated states should expect investigations and lawsuits over the motor voter laws.  After the 2010 debacle by DOJ, the status quo was not acceptable.   

Sources indicate that Voting Section Chief Herren has already started the process of laying out the new “priorities” in earlier meetings this year with election officials.  If this reversal turns out to be correct and made publicly, it would be quite different from the earlier speeches by Assistant Attorney General Perez and other Voting Section staff harping on motor voter law enforcement.

In those meetings with election officials, DOJ specifically undercut initial Department of Defense guidance to states on prompt implementation of the MOVE Act, causing confusion and ambiguity in how the law was to be enforced. 

So it is January 2012 and the MOVE Act was adopted in 2009.  It would have been nice to have the Holder DOJ actively enforcing the MOVE Act from day one when it was adopted.  Instead, confusion reigned for years as jurisdictions received conflicting or no guidance from DOJ.  The result was thousands of military and overseas voters being disenfranchised while DOJ viewed the mess from afar.