Editorial: It should become law
President Roosevelt, it seems to us, should sign the soldier vote bill – or at least permit it to become law without his signature, if his distaste for the strongly states’-rights character of the Congressional compromise is so strong as to deter him from an affirmative OK.
The results of his poll of the 48 governors are inconclusive. Some say their states will cooperate with the federal ballot bill. Some say they will not. Others are noncommittal or undecided.
The President has taken the position that the bill should be allowed to become law only if his survey indicates that more soldiers would be able to vote under the new measure than under the existing statute of 1942.
One trouble with this position is that the law of 1942 has been attacked as an unconstitutional infringement of states’ rights. If the constitutional challenge were pressed after a close election, the result might be a state of uncertainty that would be most awkward in the middle of a great war.
Since a truly adequate federal law is obviously impossible to obtain this session, would it not be wiser for the President to accept the compromise Congress has put together, and thus at least place squarely upon the states the responsibility for either facilitating or denying the vote to men overseas – the responsibility Congress evaded?
Pressure of public opinion might produce, before the July 15 deadline, more widespread cooperation by the states than the results of the President’s telegraphic poll indicate so far. Even if not, at least the troops from some states would have a better chance to vote – without constitutional doubts – and those from others would know where to put the blame for their inability to vote.