In the Missouri House yesterday, the House approved language sponsored by Republican Secretary of State candidate Shane Schoeller (R-Willard) for a constitutional amendment weaking our voting rights and making it increasingly difficult, if not impossible certain individuals, to vote.
Of course, Schoeller couldn't disguise his excitement at the thought of disenfranchising hundreds of thousands, of his fellow citizens, 11,000 of whom are active military voters:
A common sense proposal? Is that what he calls targeting voters who happen to be serving their country in the military?
Check this out from the Post-Dispatch:
No one in the Legislature is more committed to trampling on [the right to vote] than Rep. Shane Schoeller, the third-term Republican from Willard who is running for secretary of state.
Mr. Schoeller not only wants to ask voters to weaken the state constitution and then disenfranchise any state voters who lack a specific form of government-issued photo identification, now he also wants to take away the right of absentee voters — including members of the armed services — to mail in their ballots.[...]
The worst provision in Mr. Schoeller's bill would take away the long-held right of Missourians who request absentee ballots to vote by mail. These folks already are registered to vote. Some of them are disabled and can't get to the polls. Others are members of the military, stationed far from home, perhaps even overseas protecting the very right to vote that Mr. Schoeller seeks to diminish.
Why in the name of stubborn facts would Mr. Schoeller offer such a proposal? He told us that some of his constituents are concerned about potential voter fraud.
"I don't have an example of this actually happening," he told us.
Schoeller and Missouri republicans actions against our fundamental right to vote, and especially since this legislation would make it virtually impossible for active duty military members overseas to vote prompted this response from VoteVets.org:
Dear Representative Schoeller,
One of the most important rights we have as Americans is the right to go to the polls and cast our ballots in favor of the people we want to represent us in our democracy. For over two hundred years, brave American men and women have raised their right hand and placed themselves in harm's way to defend this freedom.
We wholeheartedly oppose your legislation (House Bill 2109) that would restrict the voting rights of troops who are deployed or stationed overseas, by limiting their ability to vote via absentee ballot. We feel that the idea that you would deliberately inhibit our service members from exercising the very freedoms they fight for is offensive, un-American, and wrong.
Over 11,000 members of the military voted by absentee ballot in 2008. Your legislation would end that right, and demand that members of the military find someone in Missouri to hand deliver their absentee ballot.
This legislation is patently offensive to me and the millions who have served this nation in uniform, now and in the past. It undermines the very cornerstone of our democracy and freedom. On your website, you say you are dedicated to counting military votes. If that is true, we ask that you prove it, by immediately pulling the bill from consideration.
Sincerely,
Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran
Chairman, VoteVets.org
It's high time our legislature focused on the critical issues at hand such as our lack of revenue in the budget and creating jobs, not continuing their attack on our constitutionally protected right to vote.
