So I was listening to NPR the other day, peacefully minding my own business and making some pancakes, when a story about the Veterans Administration came on the air, and I perked up my ears, because I am interested in veterans’ issues. (In case you’re wondering, it really is “Veterans Administration,” with no punctuation. I checked.)

Lo and behold, the story was a followup on the controversial decision made earlier this year by the VA to ban voter registration drives on VA property. I listened to the story with increasing incredulity, and my eyebrows slowly crept up while butter singed in the pan because I completely lost focus. It takes a lot to make me singe my butter, people.

As I hope most of you are aware, the abuse of veterans in this country is pretty widespread, and also extremely sad. Yes, the VA does provide a lot of benefits, including great medical care, when you can get it, but it also jerks vets around, tries to deprive them of benefits, and sometimes forces them to travel long distances for care. In recent months, I’ve read about fights to get disability payments, to which disabled veterans are entitled, along with disputes over health care for family  members, job placement assistance, and other services that the VA is simply supposed to provide.

But the voter registration ban is beyond the pale, to me. According to the VA official interviewed on NPR, the ban was put in place because voter registration drives are “disrupting,” which well they should be, to encourage people to REGISTER TO VOTE. Voting is a right in this country, and it’s a right a lot of vets don’t exercise, because they aren’t given the tools to do so. The military preys on people in disadvantaged circumstances, and works to keep them that way, and this is just another technique for doing that.

Of all the people in this country who should be voting this year, vets and current servicemembers are high on my list, because they are going to be directly affected by what happens in November. It is critical that servicemembers be able to vote, and to be able to do so easily, and the VA’s blanket ban on registration drives is, quite frankly, criminal.

I’m hoping it actually is criminal, as are many voter advocacy organizations, who are currently in the process of suing the VA to reinstate voter regisration drives at VA facilities. The ban wasn’t just wrong, it also set a dangerous precedent, and one I don’t much like the sound or look of.