Do Obama and Holder Want the Military Voting?

by Bill Claydon

Obama is supposed to be president of all the people, whether they vote for his party or not. But what is interesting is that while Obama’s Justice Department worked tirelessly to tell Arizona they could not protect themselves in light of the failure of the Federal government to protect the border, Eric Holder does not seem to be acting so swiftly to ensure the military gets to vote. Sadly, some might conclude that ensuring the military’s right to vote is a low priority to the Obama Administration.

According to a Politico story, the Obama Justice Department has sued Guam to ensure military personnel get to vote. Wow! Way to go, Eric Holder! But there is one teensy tiny little problem. Obama and Holder are doing nothing about a state with a much higher population: good old New York. Has this administration, one that has tried to grow federal power so much, suddenly decided to let the states do their own thing just in time for an election which involves federal seats?

In populous areas of our own New York State, boards of elections have failed to send absentee ballots to the military. It’s one thing to have an extension to take primaries into account. But it has been nearly a month since the primaries. These boards of elections have failed the October 1st extension granted to them.

Besides New York City, counties such as Westchester, Putnam, Erie, and Niagara counties have failed to meet the deadline. Erie just so happens to be the county where Carl Paladino comes from. I have yet to see a comment from our own Democrat attorney general Andrew Cuomo, who happens to be running for governor himself, on the matter. The silence is odd, certainly.

One Democrat who has been speaking out about this is Chuck Schumer, himself on the ballot. He is demanding, and rightfully so, overnight mail to ensure these ballots are received in time. Kudos goes to Schumer on this matter. (Yes, see I can and do compliment a Democrat when it’s deserved.) Of course, Schumer is basically in a “safe” seat so he has nothing to worry about.

Another politician who is strangely silent about this is Democrat Scott Murphy (NY 20). Despite working to remove ROTC from Harvard (where he stayed at a dorm building in which Matt Damon also stayed….VERY important, I know), Murphy likes to make people aware that he supports the veterans. He even has a veteran running against him, Colonel Chris Gibson. I just checked Murphy’s congressional and campaign web sites. It’s so strange but despite his telling us he likes the veterans SO much, he has not expressed outrage over the failure of New York State in getting these absentee ballots out to our brave troops. How can this be?