As if it weren’t bad enough when public officials try to stop American Indians from voting, now Bush administration officials trying to suppress efforts to get American Indians registered.
Officials at a federal program that runs hospitals and clinics serving Native Americans this summer prohibited employees from using those facilities to sign up new voters, saying that even nonpartisan voter registration was prohibited on federal property.
Staff members at several Indian Health Service hospitals and clinics in New Mexico, a presidential battleground state where about one-tenth of the population is Native American, were trying to register employees, patients and family members who use the facilities.
As far as I can tell, this is an effort to do non-partisan voter registration on public (government) property, with employees helping out during off hours. And yet, the Indian Health Service, part of Tommy Thompson’s Department of Health and Human Services, is blocking the drives — and haven’t offered an explanation.
The administration does allow voter registration drives on military bases, but apparently, not at health care facilities that cater to American Indian families. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that the administration considers military voters reliable Republicans while American Indians tend to support Dems.
The order to block the registration drives came from Ronald Wood, executive officer of the program’s regional Navajo office, who said he was acting on a directive from the head IHS office in Washington.
The agency wasn’t exactly prepared to defend the policy.
Wood did not return phone calls, but in his e-mail he referred employees’ questions to Jeanelle Raybon, director of the IHS office on integrity and ethics. Raybon declined to clarify the agency’s statement or answer questions about whether Wood’s instructions reflected IHS policy.
If there’s a good defense for the administration’s behavior here, I can’t think of it. Apparently, neither can the administration.
(thanks to Dave for the tip)