The president is not trying to suppress military votes in Ohio

Ever since the issue of requiring American voters to show an ID came back up again I've been looking for an example of Democrats trying to prevent military members from voting, as they are likely conservative voters who face some difficulties in voting when they are stationed overseas.

Despite recent claims from the right, I still haven't found that example.

Earlier this week I perked up when I heard on the radio the charge that President Barack Obama's administration is trying to make it tougher for members of the military to vote in Ohio, a swing state for the upcoming election, by filing a lawsuit to remove a three-day window before elections when members of the military can cast votes.

I wanted to believe it, honestly I did, as it would have provided me with a great talking point about how political parties care about making it easier for their likely supporters to vote and do not care about the voting rights of the general public.

However, upon further investigation I realized this accusation against the president is completely bogus.

President Obama's administration wants to make it so everyone in Ohio can vote three days early, not just members of the military. FactCheck.org and Politifact both reached the same conclusion. Even Snopes was been able to get the goods in on this issue already.

This is a shamefully baseless accusation, and it frustrates me to see right wingers sticking with the phony story and trying to shrug off the truth. A post at Breitbart.com promised to provide previous examples of military voter suppression from the Democrats, but the evidence was weak.

I did learn about accusations of Democrats trying to throw out military votes in the 2000 presidential election, but there were legitimate legal reasons to consider disregarding them. In the end, Florida Attorney General and Al Gore supporter Bob Butterworth ended up making sure those votes were counted.

I don't have time to voice my position on every issue that comes up, but in the interest of honesty and fairness I try to speak up when I see members of the right as well as the left do something outrageous like this. There are too many one-eyed watchdogs looking to invent mistakes from one political group and make excuses for another and I don't ever want to be one of them.