Guam group loses U.S. territories voting rights case
HAGATNA, Guam — A legal battle to gain equal voting rights for residents of the U.S. territories was dealt a setback after a federal judge in Illinois this week ruled that former Illinois residents who live in the territories do not have the right to cast absentee ballots in Illinois.
Six U.S. citizens, who all are former Illinois residents now living in Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, jointly filed a lawsuit in Illinois' northern district court last November with the non-profit groups Iraq, Afghanistan and Persian Gulf Veterans of the Pacific and the League of Women Voters of the Virgin Islands.
The group was challenging federal and state voting laws that have denied U.S. citizens living in the territories the ability to vote in presidential elections.
Under the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act and Illinois' Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment law, former Illinois residents have the right to vote for president and Illinois' congressional representation, provided that they live in the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa or a foreign country.
Guam group files voting rights lawsuit
The group argued that the statutes allowing them to vote in particular areas but not certain U.S. territories are a violation of their equal protection rights, according to court documents.
The two Guam plaintiffs in the case are Luis Segovia, who is in the Guam National Guard, and Anthony Bunten, a Navy veteran who moved to Guam in 1997. They cannot receive absentee ballots, the federal voting law states, because the territories are not outside the United States.
District Court Judge Joan B. Gottschall on Tuesday ruled for the federal government in the case, stating it is not the court’s role to weigh in on the wisdom or fairness of the federal Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act.
Gottschall said federal laws are considered to be constitutionally valid and cannot be examined further by the court unless they possibly violate a fundamental right.
No constitutional right
The judge stated U.S. citizens living in the territories do not have a constitutional right to vote, which means there is no fundamental right for them to vote.
The judge also noted that the U.S. Constitution does not apply in full to a territory until the territory is made a part of the United States by Congress.
Former Guam resident Neil Weare, an attorney for the plaintiffs in the case, on Thursday stated, “It defies the Constitution’s promise of equality that Luis Segovia — who has served deployments in both Iraq and Afghanistan — cannot vote for president because he lives in Guam, but could if he lived 135 miles away in the Northern Mariana Islands. The right to vote as a U.S. citizen should not depend on where you happen to live.”
Weare is president and founder of We the People Project, which advocates for equal rights and representation for Americans living in U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.
Weare noted that there still are pending challenges to Illinois state law that, if successful, could allow the plaintiffs to vote for president in November.
Contributing: Shawn Raymundo, (Guam) Pacific Daily News. Follow Steve Limtiaco on Twitter: @guamnewsman