New Haven Independent

Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal traveled to the medical center, just across the New Haven-West Haven border, to announce a deal with the VA in the state that would allow nonpartisan voter registration, demonstrations of voting machines and explanation of absentee ballots and a phone system for disabled people.

Bysiewicz and Blumenthal have been crusading for such an agreement. They had threatened a lawsuit against the federal VA to overturn a rule barring such efforts at veterans hospitals. Also, a bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Chris Murphy was making its way through Congress on a fast track to accomplish the same goal.

A beaming Bysiewicz Thursday introduced a West Haven resident whom she had just registered. Gregory Williams, 45, left in photo with her and Blumenthal, said he had registered with a party in time to vote in the Aug. 12 primaries. Although he is a worker, and not a patient at the VA facility, he said he was happy to register in the state and thanked the two officials for coming. He has lived in West Haven with his 15-year-old son for a few years, and had been registered in New Jersey, he said.

According to the deal worked out between Blumenthal’s office and the VA, the federal Veterans Administration facilities in West Haven and Newington will allow nonpartisan registration and voter education onsite. The activities are already allowed at the state-run Veterans Home and Hospital in Rocky Hill, Bysiewicz said.

VA Medical Center Director Roger Johnson, in photo, said he was working within national VA policy in allowing nonpartisan registration. He said he and the state were “working in a collaborative fashion” to allow registration and education.

The press was not allowed to watch registration and education programs located in the building, because they were being held in patient areas. Bysiewicz did register at least four people outside, using a cement barrier as a table.

Because of the agreement, no lawsuit will be filed against the Connecticut VA over voter issues, Blumenthal said.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell had backed the efforts to register veterans within the state.
See her statement here.

The federal VA still has a ban on voter registration drives because of a policy instituted last May by Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake. Johnson said his superiors in Washington were aware of his actions in allowing the activities within Connecticut.

“Today is a victory for veterans and a victory for democracy,” Bysiewicz said in a prepared statement that she repeated to the dozen or so media representatives and 20 or so curious veterans and staff members outside the main building at the Campbell Avenue complex. “It should not have taken the threat of a lawsuit but we are glad Connecticut VA officials have dropped their opposition to fully educating” veterans.

Blumenthal’s remarks echoed hers. “The VA has given democracy a victory. Wisely, the VA has avoided a court fight — which we pledged to wage — by permitting nonpartisan activities” at the VA center.

Afterward, Blumenthal said he thought the whole thing might have been settled if the all parties had understood that the registration and education efforts were going to be nonpartisan. He said he thought the May 5 federal directive was “misdrafted” as much as “misguided.” Johnson did not comment.

“A good agreement is better than a good court fight,” Blumenthal said, smiling.

Johnson said the volunteers who were to register voters in his facility could not encourage the veterans to register with a particular party, but could register a vet with a party if the registrant requested it.

Bysiewicz said he still would back efforts of 21 secretaries of state from both political parties to get agreements nationally such as the one reached in Connecticut.

The bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Murphy was passed unanimously by the House Administrations Committee last week and awaits action on the House floor. The Senate Rules Committee expects to hold hearings in September on a similar bill.

Johnson said the VA had always encouraged veterans to vote; he said he was working within VA national policy in making the agreement with the state. He said he welcomes nonpartisan groups. He said they would still have to work within the volunteer establishment at the hospital.

VA resident Julie Morrow, right in photo, an Army veteran, stood with Bysiewicz and completed a registration form. She said she was recovering from problems that started during her military service. She said she was being well-treated at the West Haven facility and would be voting in the national election. She and Bysiewicz were engaged in earnest conversation for quite a long time until the state official went into the building to do part of what she had come to do: register voters and teach them how to use the new voting machines.

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