
	Chris Mulick has worked for the Herald since 1998 and has served as the statehouse correspondent covering state government and politics since 2000. He works year-round out of the Herald's Olympia bureau on the state Capitol campus. Have a question? Send Chris an e-mail and he'll answer the best questions regularly.

reprint or license print story

E-Mail

tool goes here

Thursday, Sep. 18, 2008

Comments (0)

Murray, Reed ask for help in registering VA patients to vote

U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed just wrapped up a conference call with reporters to get the word out about the Department of Veterans Affairs new directive allowing nonpartisan groups to conduct voter registration drives at VA facilities.

Such groups, which would include county auditors offices and the League of Women Voters, must first apply to the agency and be approved before being allowed in. It’s believed the process to process an application could take a day or so.

There’s a sense of urgency because the deadline for registering to vote in the Nov. 4 election is Oct. 4. And Reed and Murray hope any interested groups to get moving.

“We just have a few weeks to make it happen,” Murray said.

“Of all people they deserve to have us bend over backwards to make sure they’ll be able to participate in our election process,” Reed said of patients at VA facilities.

Both Murray and Reed called the new agency directive a significant first step.

Jeff Honeycutt, director of Voluntary Services for the VA Puget Sound, was on the call and said the new policy is more of a clarification. Designated volunteers have been allowed to help patients register to vote since July, he said.

But Reed said “it was quite a complicated process and one that was unlikely to produce an extensive amount of participation.”

For more Olympia Dispatch see www.olympiadispatch.com

Stay updated with the Olympia Dispatch RSS feed: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/944/v-highlights/index.rss