Lose Your Home, Lose Your Vote (NRR)
motorcityfunk
128 Posts
b,121For some reason, above all this other shit, this made me angry:b,121b,121"Michigan Republicans plan to foreclose African-American votersb,121b,121b,121The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP???s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.b,121b,121???We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren???t voting from those addresses,??? party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed.b,121b,121State election rules allow parties to assign ???election challengers??? to polls to monitor the election. In addition to observing the poll workers, these volunteers can challenge the eligibility of any voter provided they ???have a good reason to believe??? that the person is not eligible to vote. One allowable reason is that the person is not a ???true resident of the city or township.???b,121b,121The Michigan Republicans??? planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being ???true residents.???b,121b,121One expert questioned the legality of the tactic.b,121b,121???You can???t challenge people without a factual basis for doing so,??? said J. Gerald Hebert, a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, a Washington D.C.-based public-interest law firm. ???I don???t think a foreclosure notice is sufficient basis for a challenge, because people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance.???b,121b,121As for the practice of challenging the right to vote of foreclosed property owners, Hebert called it, ???mean-spirited.???b,121b,121Challenges to would-be votersb,121b,121Statewide, the Republican Party is gearing up for a comprehensive voter challenge campaign, according to Denise Graves, party chair for Republicans in Genessee County, which encompasses Flint. The party is creating a spreadsheet of election challenger volunteers and expects to coordinate a training with the regional McCain campaign, Graves said in an interview with Michigan Messenger.b,121b,121Whether the Republicans will challenge voters with foreclosed homes elsewhere in the state is not known.b,121b,121Kelly Harrigan, deputy director of the GOP???s voter programs, confirmed that she is coordinating the group???s ???election integrity??? program. Harrigan said the effort includes putting in place a legal team, as well as training election challengers. She said the challenges to voters were procedural rather than personal. She referred inquiries about the vote challenge program to communications director Bill Nowling, who promised information but did not return calls.b,121b,121Party chairman Carabelli said that the Republican Party is training election challengers to ???make sure that [voters] are who they say who they are.???b,121b,121When asked for further details on how Republicans are compiling challenge lists, he said, ???I would rather not tell you all the things we are doing.???b,121b,121 a href="http://www.michiganmessenger.com/4076/lose-your-house-lose-your-vote" target="_blank"1http://www.michiganmessenger.com/4076/lose-your-house-lose-your-vote/a1
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