Michigan

Two voter-purge programs have now been put to rest now that the state of Michigan has agreed to stop unlawfully disfranchising thousands of Michigan voters (many of these voters being college students). The agreement ends a legal battle commenced in September 2008 when organizations like the Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Michigan and the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP on behalf of the United States Student Association Foundation (USSAF), ACLU of Michigan and Michigan State Conference of the NAACP all filed suit against the state.

“This is a true victory for Michigan voters,” said Bradley Heard, a senior attorney with Advancement Project. “Voter-removal procedures like those at issue in this lawsuit, which allow eligible and registered voters to be suddenly stricken from the rolls without notice, are bad for democracy. We are happy that the state of Michigan finally agreed to right these wrongful practices.”

Michigan’s voter-purge programs disfranchised Michigan voters with out-of-state driver’s licenses or voter-identification records associated with incorrect mailing addresses.

Many of these out-of-state driver's license issues and incorrect address problems occur when non-Michigan college students relocate to go to school within the state. Though this makes them a legal resident, the Michigan voter removal program ignored that.

Michigan’s voter-removal programs had a particularly detrimental impact on students and minority and low-income communities. These populations tend to be more transient and to live in multi-family housing or in dormitory settings where mail can be unreliable and unpredictable. Students often have driver's licenses from different states than where their colleges are located.

“This ruling ensures that, despite the transient lifestyle of college students, they will continue to have an influential voice in the electoral process," said Gregory Cendana, President of USSAF.

Props to Cendana and the organizations fighting this unlawful behavior. This is the kind of injustice that a healthy progressive youth movement can eliminate. Though it took nearly two years, students and low-income voters in Michigan just had some of their rights restored.

Your Saturday afternoon reading.

• Larry Sabato, Director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics and Professor of Politics, makes a YouTube video for students, advising them on why and how to get involved in the 2008 election:
  
• Record voter registration in Michigan (with the college town counties forming the list of top five counties with the largest number of new registered voters).
• Florida A&M celebrates the start of early voting in Florida in a big way: one thousand faculty, students, and staff, led by the president, cast votes.
• The GOP must have missed the memo: voter suppression isn't "in" this election cycle. Sorry.
• Rock the Vote prepares for the youth vote tsunami.
• Ypulse, partnering with Alex Steed on his tour across America to meet and talk with other young activists, has a post regarding conversations with young Millennial business leaders engaging in socially responsible business practices.
• Voting on the weekend? An op-ed in the Times explores the benefits of holding two election days -- on Saturday and Sunday -- the first weekend of November.
• A global consensus: 90 percent of youth around the world want to see action taken on climate change.
• A new round of polling of gamers on Xbox Live yields a predictable result: their top concern is jobs and the economy.
• Sarah wrote about Generation We this week, the new site with a plethora of data on Millennials and a free copy of the book by Eric Greenberg. It's Getting Hot in Here has more coverage.
• A great piece by Adrian Talbott on Millennials' engagement thus far this election cycle at Huffington Post.

Chock full of goodness, and featuring special appearances by everyone's favorite youth vote cranks.

• Over at WireTap, Sarah disspells 8 common myths about voter eligibility. Mandatory reading for students and first-time voters.
• Love to Twitter and worried about Republicans trying to steal the election? Put both to work on October 24th by joining the Vote Report Code Jam, where experts and activists like Allison Fine and Noel Hidalgo will team up with Rock the Vote, Mobilize.org, and activists across the country to create guidelines and procedures for using Twitter as an election protection tool in precincts across the country.
• The Project on Student Debt released their new national report on the issue. Check out this flash map for a state by state overview. I'll try to have a blog up about their full report before the end of the week.
• Students for Barack Obama have good news and valuable advice for students in Michigan trying to vote absentee.
• Mark Penn still cannot admit when he is wrong. Watch him minimize the impact and importance of the youth vote for Obama one more time.
• Finally, America's Best High School Newspaper notes that Obama is killing McCain in early voting. Skip the last paragraph quoting Curtis the Crank unless you're looking for your daily dose of "get of my lawn."

Cross-posted at Project Vote's blog, Voting Matters

On Sept. 10, reporter Eartha Jane Melzer of online publication, the Michigan Messenger broke the story that the GOP of Macomb County, Mich. was planning to use public lists of foreclosures to challenge the eligibility of potentially thousands of low-income and minority voters in that hard-hit region. Since that time (and at least party through Project Vote's efforts to catalyze action to stop the illegal disenfranchisement), the story has been picked up by multiple news outlets around the country and generated a lawsuit from the Obama campaign and the DNC on behalf of potentially-disenfranchised Mich. voters.

Sept. 10

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” Macomb County GOP chairman James Carabelli reportedly told the Messenger in the Sept. 10 report.

“The Macomb County party's plans to challenge voters who have defaulted on their house payments is likely to disproportionately affect African Americans who are overwhelmingly Democratic voters,” Melzer wrote. “More than 60 percent of all sub-prime loans – the most likely kind of loan to go into default – were made to African Americans in Michigan...”

Sept. 11

In a statement, Project Vote attorney Teresa James explained that Michigan law allows challenges at the polls only if the challenger “knows or has good reason to suspect” a voter is ineligible. According to James, the Michigan Secretary of State has clarified this to require that challenges should be based on “reliable sources or means.”

“Republican challengers with only a list of foreclosure notices will have NO evidence or reliable source to suggest that eligible voters have moved and are no longer eligible to vote,” James said.

Later that day, however, Carabelli denied having any such plans, according to a Detroit News report. Despite his claim that the story was a fabrication, Melzer “stands by her story '100 percent' and has clear notes on her conversation with Carabelli.”

Sept. 12

James sent a letter on behalf of Project Vote to both major political parties in Michigan, offering a detailed analysis of state and federal law and the requirements for challenging voters based on residency. In the letter, James clarified that a change of address for any reason – including losing one's home to foreclosure – does not itself disqualify an individual from voting under Michigan law, and that challenging a voter on the basis of a foreclosure would violate the National Voter Registration Act and the Voting Rights Act.

Sept. 16

The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit on behalf of the potentially disenfranchised foreclosure victims, according to Greg Gordon of McClatchy Newspapers.

“Democratic lawyers argued that foreclosure proceedings can take more than a year and don't always force a homeowner to change residences,” Gordon wrote. “Nor is there a basis, they wrote, 'for challenging the right to vote of all the renters who reside in an apartment building that has been foreclosed.'

“They said the tactic is intended 'to discourage, intimidate and suppress the vote of individuals whom defendant Republicans believe are unlikely to vote for them.'”

A spokesman for the state Republican Party denied the plan to use foreclosure lists to challenge voters and claimed that they “never talked about doing it,” Gordon wrote.

The same day, “a group of Senate Democrats -- including Sen. Obama -- sent a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey asking for details on what the Justice Department plans to do to ensure voters aren't 'intimidated or harassed based solely on the fact that they have received a foreclosure notice,'” according to the Wall Street Journal.

“Peter Carr, a Justice Department spokesman, said the department 'is aware of the allegations and is currently reviewing the matter.'”

Sept. 19

U.S. Sen. John Conyers (D-Mich.) asked the McCain campaign to “'repudiate any efforts of the Republican Party and any of its state affiliates to engage in voter suppression and intimidation tactics,'" relating directly to the Sept. 10 report on caging foreclosure victims in Macomb County, Mich., according to a blog post in The Hill.

"'It is beyond disgraceful that the Republican Party now seems to be targeting those who are suffering the most,' Conyers said.’ It appears that individuals who can't recall how many houses they own don't understand how awful it is to lose your home to foreclosure, and don't know that you don’t need to own property to vote in the United States of America.'”

Conyers' anti-caging bill, Caging Prohibition Act of 2008 (H 5038) has not moved in Congress since January.

Sept. 24

Congressional members and acting assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Civil Rights division, Grace Chung Becker discussed the Michigan voter caging scheme during a joint hearing of the House Judiciary and Administration committees, according to Jonathan Kaplan of the Michigan Messenger.

Becker said that if allegations of voter caging foreclosure victims were true, “it would be a concern to us in the Civil Rights Division.” She also noted that criminal prosecutors from the DOJ would not monitor polling stations this year.

That same day, the Michigan House Democrats announced the introduction of a plan “that protects the right to vote for residents who have received a foreclosure notice.” The plan is currently in the Senate, according to the House Democrats news release.

In Ohio, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner also took action to protect the rights of low-income voters in that state. On Sept. 24, Brunner issued a directive to county boards of election stating that they “may not cancel an Ohioan’s voter registration based solely on the fact that the person is involved in a foreclosure process.” Brunner instructed boards that they must comply with the requirements of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), which says a voter’s registration can only be canceled due to residency if the voter confirms such a change in writing, or if the voter fails to respond to a forwardable notice and fails to vote in two subsequent federal elections.

Picking up on the severity of the voting rights issue and how it may impact national turnout in November, Ian Urbina of the New York Times reported how “federal election officials say they are concerned that voters are not being properly informed of how to update their addresses – a problem that may lead to the loss of thousands of votes.

The number of people who move “due to foreclosure or any other reason” exceeds the number of people who notified the election boards.” According to Urbina, 375,000 Ohio residents filed for a change of address with the U.S. Postal Service, but only 24,000 updated their voter registration information. Similarly, in Missouri, 250,000 people notified the Postal Service of their move, but only 22,000 told the election board.

Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio sent notices to residents in select counties who have filed for change of address, but did not update voter registration, Urbina wrote.

On Sept. 24 Project Vote sent letters to the DNC and the RNC, as well as to Secretaries of State, Attorneys-General, and state party chairs in key states where we are conducting voter registration work and fear large numbers of low-income voters could be susceptible to similar caging tactics, including Ariz., Colo., Fla., N.M., Penn., Nev., N.C., Va., Ohio, Md., Mo. and Ga.. Project Vote also sent a letter to the Department of Justice, outlining the legal ramifications of this and other voter caging operations, and demanding investigation and prosecution of acts that violate voter rights under the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, and other federal laws.

Sept. 26

The Washington Post reported that Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler instructed the state and local election officials to ensure that voters who have lost their homes to foreclosures are aware that they have not lost their right to vote.

“Terry Speigner, chairman of the Democratic Central Committee in Prince George's County, said his phone 'has been burning up' with calls about the rumor in Maryland,” according to Post writer, Ovetta Wiggins.

“A foreclosure is not a valid basis on which to challenge a registered voter at the polls,” Gansler wrote in the letter to officials.

As we were following the voter caging story in Michigan, the Republican National Committee decided to heighten their attack on the nation's largest nonpartisan voter registration drive and its connection to presidential candidate Barrack Obama – another voter suppression effort that could create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation at the polls, according a Sept. 28 NPR report by Pam Fessler.

Quick Links:

“Voter Caging.” Project Vote.

James, Teresa. “Caging Democracy: A 50-Year History of Partisan Challenges to Minority Voters.” Project Vote. September 2007.

Minnite, Lorraine. “The Politics of Voter Fraud.” Project Vote. March 2007.

Erin Ferns is a research analyst with Project Vote's Strategic Writing and Research Department.

Cross-posted at Project Vote's Voting Matter's Blog

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

Partisan political operatives in Michigan are taking voter caging operations to depths that would surprise even the most cynical observers of American elections. If their plans are put into action, thousands of Michigan foreclosure victims may find that they will not only have lost their homes this year, but also their vote.

Operatives in the closely contested state, which is home to thousands of homeowners facing foreclosure, are “gearing up for a comprehensive voter challenge campaign,” according to Eartha Jane Melzer of the Michigan Messenger Wednesday. The state allows parties to send election challengers to polls to challenge the eligibility of voters if they “have good reason to believe” a voter is ineligible. In this case, the GOP of Macomb County—a “key swing county” with a foreclosure rate in the top three percent in the nation—has announced plans to challenge the voting eligibility of foreclosure victims based on residency.

“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,” Macomb County GOP chairman James Carabelli told the Messenger.

J. Gerald Herbert, a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department, questions what he calls a “mean-spirited” and possibly legally-baseless tactic: “You can't challenge people without a factual basis for doing so...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.”

Teresa James, attorney for Project Vote, agrees. In a statement released today, James explains that Michigan law allows challenges at the polls only if the challenger “knows or has good reason to suspect” a voter is ineligible. According to James, the Michigan Secretary of State has clarified this to require that challenges should be based on “reliable sources or means.”

“Republican challengers with only a list of foreclosure notices will have NO evidence or reliable source to suggest that eligible voters have moved and are no longer eligible to vote,” says James.

“The Macomb County party's plans to challenge voters who have defaulted on their house payments is likely to disproportionately affect African-Americans who are overwhelmingly Democratic voters,” Melzer writes. “More than 60 percent of all sub-prime loans – the most likely kind of loan to go into default – were made to African-Americans in Michigan...”

Melzer points out that Republican presidential candidate John McCain's regional headquarters is in the office of the state's largest foreclosure law firm, Trott & Trott, whose founder has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the campaign. McCain “stands to benefit from the burgeoning number of foreclosures in the state,” Melzer writes.

“At a minimum, what you are seeing is a fairly comprehensive effort by the Republican Party, a systemic broad-based effort to put up obstacles for people to vote,” says Herbert. “When you are comprehensively challenging people to vote, your goals are two-fold: One is you are trying to knock people out from casting ballots; the other is to create a slowdown that will discourage others.” This type of disruption would be expected in areas with high foreclosure rates, particularly the Detroit metropolitan, where one in every 176 households received foreclosure filings during the month of July, according to Melzer.

“You would think [the Macomb GOP] would think, 'This is going to look too heartless,'” says David Lagstein, head organizer for Michigan ACORN, which has registered 200,000 new voters statewide and provides foreclosure-avoidance assistance.

“The Republican-led state Senate has not moved on the anti-predatory lending bill for over a year and yet have time to prey on those who have fallen victim to foreclosure to suppress the vote,” Lagstein says.

Michigan is not the only swing state at the risk of voter caging issues this election. At the urging of Project Vote and other voting rights advocates, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner recently issued a binding directive to all county election boards, instructing them that parts of the state's challenge laws in relation to residency challenges based only on returned mail were unconstitutional. It is unclear, however, whether Brunner’s directive will prevent partisans from filing frivolous challenges anyway, which—however baseless—could have a chilling effect on voter turnout. And the Michigan Messenger reports that Franklin County, Ohio director of elections Doug Preisse and the chair of the local GOP have said they do not rule out challenging voters before the election due to foreclosure-related address issues.

In Project Vote’s statement, Teresa James says “The GOP’s plan is a cynical partisan attempt to suppress the vote of thousands of low-income and African-American voters, a replay of the 2004 threats of mass challenges...In America you get to vote even if you’re behind on your bills. All Americans—particularly those members of the community hit hardest by the economic crisis—deserve a voice and a vote on Election Day.”

Quick Links:

“Voter Caging.” Project Vote.

James, Teresa. “Caging Democracy: A 50-Year History of Partisan Challenges to Minority Voters.” Project Vote. September 2007.

In Other News:

'No-Match, No-Vote' Law Draws Criticism - Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE - Advocacy groups predicted Wednesday that thousands of people, mostly the poor and minorities, will be denied the right to vote through no fault of their own under a new Florida voter registration law.

Can young people actually make a difference this year? - Slate
In 2004, the "youth vote" was supposed to break all records. It did and it didn't-but either way, it didn't make a difference for John Kerry, even though he won 54 percent of voters under 29. So it is with this year's youth vote: Even if it exceeds that of four years ago-Barack Obama currently commands about 60 percent of the under-29 cohort-it will be nearly impossible to say whether it made a difference.

ACLU launches campaign to get former prisoners to register to vote – Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin [N.Y.]
ALBANY -- The New York Civil Liberties Union today kicked off a six-week campaign to educate county election boards and former prisoners on the voting rights of convicted felons.

Erin Ferns is a Research and Policy Analyst with Project Vote’s Strategic Writing and Research Department (SWORD).

Those who read our diaries know Project Vote as the organization that fights voter suppression and helps election protection efforts. What you may not know is that in addition to being on the frontlines in the fight for voter rights, Project Vote is also the largest voter registration organization in the United States.

Since 2003 over one-third of all registration applications submitted through voter registration drives in the U.S. have come through Project Vote. In 2003-04 we submitted 1.13 million applications, in 2006 just over 547,000, and by Friday we will collect our 1,000,000th registration for 2007-08. Half of our registrants are under 30, and almost all of them are African-Americans or Latinos. One-third of them have never registered before in their lives.

With one month left in the drive we have 270,000 more registrations to collect and you can help!

Project Vote is proud of our achievements. No voter registration organization in U. S. history has been able to help register over a million low-income people for two presidential election cycles in a row. This success is a testament to our field partners, our state of the art project management system, and the generosity and commitment of our donors.

But our work is not yet finished. Our goal for the 2007-2008 election was 1.27 million voters, so we still have 270,000 more applications to collect in states such as Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. We are now one short month away from the end of our program and we need everyone’s help to finish the job.

In at least five states nationwide Project Vote will help register more voters than made up the margin of victory in the last presidential election: no matter how our registrants choose to vote, these last few votes will matter in a real and powerful way.

Rest assured that in addition to our record-breaking voter registration effort, our Elections Administration program will continue through Election Day to make sure our applicants and similarly situated applicants get on the voter rolls, can vote, and have their vote counted. In fact, we’ve been hard at work fighting voter purges in the South in recent days.

If you would like to reach out to Project Vote, you can contact us at 800-546-8683, 202-546-4173, or via e-mail at researchdirector@projectvote.org

While I was in Nashville, I didn't get a chance to watch the RBC meeting (seemingly streamed live via every broadcast and independent media outlet on the planet). Everyone at the conference was buzzing about it - making phone calls, checking their email and trying to keep up with the latest twist and turn.

Since I missed the whole thing, I'll turn you over to two very capable people who did watch it. First, watch Joe's always interesting take:

Then go read Emptywheel at FireDogLake, who was at the RBC meeting and live blogged the whole event. She has a great recap on exactly what the Michigan delegate compromise means and how it was reached.

So here's a question. If Florida and/or Michigan hold new contests for the Democratic nomination, will those contests take into consideration the special needs and circumstances of young voters?

For instance, if Florida were to send out mail-in ballots as their chosen method for a re-vote, how would those ballots be distributed? Young people move frequently - and many may even move between now and June, when most colleges and universities let out for the summer. As such, address information in the voter file will likely be inaccurate and could result in tens of thousands of students being disenfranchised. Some of those students may not even reside in the state over the summer, but they will have missed their chance to vote in the state where their parents live.

The mobility of young people will also be a problem should the states opt for a caucus process or a new primary with physical polling locations. Thousands or tens of thousands of young people may be away on vacation or living elsewhere for the summer. That could require long drives, hotel stays, or even more expensive plane rides if they wish to exercise their right to vote. That's not acceptable.

The details of these new contests (if they happen at all) are still being worked out, but the campaigns, the DNC, and the state parties should do all in their power to make sure that any solution does not overly burden and disenfranchise younger voters.

CIRCLE has released a fact sheet (pdf) on yesterday's primary in Michigan. Despite the fact that the Democratic primary was virtually uncontested, turnout among 18 - 29 year olds still rivaled that seen by the Republican Party, and as a share of the electorate, young people played a more decisive role in the Democratic Primary than they did in the Republican.

100,776 young voters aged 18 - 29 participated in yesterday's Democratic Primary (choosing "uncontested" over Hillary Clinton, 48% - 43%). They were 17% of the Democratic electorate. Comparatively, 112,833 18 - 29 year olds voted in the Republican Primary, and they were just 13% of the Republican electorate. Republican youth gave Mitt Romney a plurality of their votes, though it was a fairly tight race between the Governor and his top three opponents - John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and dark horse Ron Paul.

Good news for Democrats - even when there's no race we got turnout that is just as good among young voters.

Update: CNN has updated their exit poll and now is putting the race much closer, though Clinton is still losing the youth vote. New stats below.
-----------------------
Turnout was very low due to a combination of bad weather and the fact that neither Barack Obama nor John Edwards were on the ballot, but it is probably worth noting that "uncommitted" beat out Senator Clinton among both 18 - 24 and 25 - 29 year olds. This is somewhat shocking after Clinton seemed to make headway among the 25 - 29 demographic in New Hampshire, but could very easily be due to the fact that, running unopposed, Clinton didn't campaign nearly as hard in Michigan as she did in the Granite State. Nevada and South Carolina will be the real test for Clinton's redoubled youth outreach efforts.

From the CNN Exit poll:

Young Voters (18 - 29) were 17% of the electorate - the smallest group, but that seems unsurprising considering that this was never a real race like we saw in Iowa and New Hampshire. I'm curious to know whether the lack of election day registration may have played a part as well . . . both Iowa and New Hampshire have election day registration. Michigan does not and the voter rolls closed on December 17th.