Voting Rights

I reported yesterday about our HUGE VICTORY in the update in Franking Rules which will enable our Representatives to be better connected to constituencies and help build bridges between government and the people by providing them with information where they spend much of their time... ie facebook, myspace, twitter, etc...

A good example the Feds could incorporate into their newly found freedoms is something CA SOS Debra Bowen has done with her new YouTube channel.

Bowen campaigned in California in the heart of the uncertainty battle with electronic voting machines saying she was running for two reasons "Florida and Ohio." With the impending voter suppression on the horizon and the actualized fears we've seen thus far, its only fair to assume that voting rights advocates will have their work cut out for them.

Even one of the greatest American Patriots of our time had problems voting:

But I digress... Bowen's video mentions a pet issue "transparency" and asks for UGC about why WE are voting this year. I would, actually, like to hear from young what their first time was like in their first election - if it is their first time, what has it been like registering and getting information about candidates at all levels of government? Further, do people expect there to be difficulties, and what do they plan to do if there are... I am imagining some great role playing videos.

First, submission to Bowen's request - I vote because I believe in the right to dance....

Why do you vote? I vote for my right to bug elected leaders on twitter....

Happy Friday!

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 blog, Voting Matters

Weekly Voting Rights News Update

By Erin Ferns

"I think the days of ballot box stuffing are more or less gone." - Allen Raymond, former GOP operative

Voter fraud by individuals has been a major partisan debate in recent elections, inspiring multiple states to consider or pass laws that purport to stop it, including "no-match, no-vote" list maintenance procedures and strict voter ID  requirements. Despite federal findings that the act of casting an illegal ballot is exceedingly rare, partisans often cite large scale voter registration drives as voter fraud culprits, and perpetuate the myth of voter fraud by spreading the fear that such votes cancel out legitimate ones. With rising registration rates - particularly among historically underrepresented Americans - it is no surprise that partisans are spreading this myth, and the media often perpetuates the hysteria by printing stories on the small numbers of bad registration cards submitted by large scale voter registration drives (including the 1.2 million submitted by Project Vote voter registration partner, ACORN).

Despite the constant trickle of "voter fraud" scares in the media, however, it is becoming more evident that elections are more often compromised by systematic efforts to suppress eligible voters, including the very measures that are meant to protect against the extremely rare instances of ineligible voters attempting to cast a ballot. The real enemy to fair elections are organized voter suppression efforts that are seen in these poorly devised election laws, partisan dirty tricks, and systematic partisan efforts to challenge legitimate voters. From the alleged plan to challenge foreclosure victims in Michigan and Ohio to the potential "no-match, no-vote" fiascoes in Wisconsin and Florida, many Americans have cause to wonder, "will my vote count in November?"

On Monday, September 22, KCRW's To the Point host, Warren Olney, discussed voter fraud and voter suppression in the 2008 presidential election with Project Vote Executive Director Michael Slater, Doug Chapin of the Pew Center, former GOP strategist Allen Raymond, and Wall Street Journal columnist, John Fund.

In "major states like Ohio, Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania" this year, Slater warned that we can expect some "election administration problems," which run the gamut from logistical issues, such as poorly distributed voting machines, to voter suppression tactics, including voter caging, which historically affect low income and minority communities. These communities, which have historically been systematically shut out of the electoral process, have shown signs of increased political interest and higher registration rates they year, prompting fears of increased partisan efforts to suppress this tidal wave of new voters.

Fund repeated stories of small numbers of allegedly invalid voter registration cards being submitted out of the more than 1.2 million turned in this year by Project Vote voter registration partner, ACORN, and said "some of these voter registration efforts have been questionable." But former GOP operative Allen Raymond, explained that there was a critical difference between a "systematic" voter suppression program "versus one that is part of the process." For one, he said, systematic efforts, like voter caging, are far more detrimental to election integrity than voter registration drive employees submitting bad applications.

Raymond was dismissive of the allegations against voter registration drives.

"Look, those are a couple of people who are just trying to earn a buck, collecting signatures. I've seen it all the time on ballot access petition efforts," he said of the voter registration fraud allegations. "I think the days of ballot box stuffing are more or less gone...and so I think what you really need to address are those systematic efforts," said Raymond.

Election Dirty Tricks

Raymond knows all about partisan use of systemic voter suppression efforts; he has written a book entitled How to Rig an Election: Confessions of a Republican Operative, which describes his years as a dirty-tricks specialist for the GOP. Raymond served time for a 2002 Republican phone jamming scheme. In a September 15 interview with the Michigan Messenger Raymond said "holding down Democratic turnout is a key part of Republican strategy for victory in November." Asked about reports of Republican attempts to challenge the voting rights of foreclosure victims, Raymond said that if he were still in the dirty-tricks business he "would be doing that all day long."

Other stories that have surfaced in recent weeks contribute to fears that partisans are ramping up their voter suppression machines. Last week, a mailer from the Republican National Committee that went to multiple registered Democrats in Florida left many confused about their party affiliation, according to Pam Fessler of NPR. While some Democratic officials consider the mailer an attempt to challenge voters based on returned mail, particularly Democratic senior citizens, Republican officials claim the confusion was not intentional and denied allegations of voter caging, according to the Naples Daily News on Sunday.

But in recent weeks several media and Internet outlets, including Air America, have reported on accounts of massive mailings of absentee ballots from the McCain campaign sent to registered Democrats and Obama supporters in other battleground states as well, including  Wisconsin, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; many of the mailings appear to contain the wrong preprinted return addresses for ballots, which would direct them to the wrong precinct.

Of even greater concern than dirty tricks is the possibility of voter suppression through election administration problems that are expected to run the gamut in key states.

No-Match, No-Vote

Voter advocates claim thousands of Wisconsin voters may "lose their right to vote" as a result of a lawsuit filed by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen just six weeks before the election.  Hollen, who sued the Government Accountability Board - which oversees elections in the state -  to "seek an order requiring the board to compare voter information to the Department of Transportation records for more voters," is being scrutinized for his ties to the McCain campaign (he is the campaign's co-chair in Wisconsin), according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Hollen hopes to quickly implement a notoriously faulty voter list maintenance system known as "no-match, no-vote," which experts say could result in purging eligible voters from the Wisconsin registration rolls. This system was found to incorrectly fail 22 percent of voters during an initial test in August (additionally, four out of six judges on the G.A.B. also failed to match the system). Under "no-match, no-vote", voters could mistakenly lose their registration as a result of "transposed digits, variations in names ("Becky" instead of "Rebecca," for instance) or poor handwriting on voter registration forms," the Journal-Sentinel reports. "Apt to fail are people with apostrophes, hyphens or spaces in their names. Voter records usually drop punctuation and spaces - 'ONeil' instead of 'O'Neil' - while driver's license records often keep them."

A similar practice is being enforced in Florida that could "turn Election Day 2008 in Florida into a catastrophe akin to the hanging-chads debacle of 2000," Florida Today editorialized this week. "With no time for troubleshooting the system, that could falsely disenfranchise many who've done nothing wrong." The state's dormant  2005 "no-match, no-vote" law was revived by Republican Secretary of State Kurt Browning in early September after challenges failed in court. Browning's decision to enforce this practice caused a critical uproar from voting rights activists, who claim such a move could disenfranchise thousands of Floridians, according to a Miami Herald report earlier this month.

"No-match, no-vote laws" are sold to the public as a way to prevent fraudulent voting, but as Florida Today correctly notes; "few people try to vote under someone else's name. A five-year hunt for voter fraud by the Justice Department under the Bush administration found almost no evidence of organized efforts to tilt national elections."

The Elections Supervisor of Leon County, Florida, Ion Sancho, is quoted in the Florida Today piece as saying that the real problem is not potential fraud by voters but partisan manipulation of the process. Sancho has been vocal about his opposition to the Florida laws he is required to enforce, including how the state makes eligible voters vulnerable to partisan challenges. Speaking on WGCU radio in Florida on September 12, Sancho told host Sasha Rethati that in the past ten years the Florida legislature had written rules to "make sure that the party in power could stay in power." He pointed to a 2005 Florida law that stripped the state's voters of the right to contest challenges at the polls, and how challengers now only needed to express a "good faith belief" that a voter is ineligible to force the voter to file a provisional ballot. "You can supply a list containing 10,000 names to the supervisor of elections," said Sancho, "and I have to make all 10,000 members vote by provisional ballot."

"What we have here is partisans attempting to use anything they can possibly find to gain an advantage on the other party," said Sancho. "Quite frankly, I'm fed up with it as an election official. The reason I came into this field was to make sure Americans had the right to vote, and to have their votes counted properly."



Quick Links:

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



In Other News:

Same-day voter signup getting serious look - Decatur Herald-Review [Ill.]

...Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, is investigating moving to same-day voter registration in two years. That means a person who was eligible to register but had not done so could walk into a polling place on Election Day, register to vote and be handed a ballot...

GOP: Lose Your Home, Lose Your Vote - The Nation

Senator John McCain was a foot soldier in the deregulation revolution, which triggered the current banking crisis and the wave of foreclosures. In Michigan, his party wants to deny the right to vote to victims of the GOP's misguided economic policies and the sleazy banking practices they encouraged.

Oklahoma election officials disagree with ACLU - Associated Press

State law prohibits former felons from registering to vote until the full length of their prescribed sentence has expired - even if they are not in prison and are no longer supervised by the Department of Corrections, the secretary of the state Election Board said Monday.

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

"Today was a huge victory for us," Matt Segal the Executive Director of the Student Association of Student Empowerment (SAVE) said Thursday evening in an interview after testifying before the House Administration Committee on voting rights for young people.

This was the culmination of 5 months of SAVE members and volunteers working the Hill in efforts to educate Congress on the difficulties young voters face each election year.

These stories are not unique to us. Recently, even, we've heard about voter disenfranchisement affecting students. In Colorado and New Mexico as well as Virgina Tech students who are "being told that they risk losing their scholarship and tax dependency status if they register to vote in their college, as opposed to home, state."

At a time when CNN is talking about the League of First Time Voters and the issues that matter most to them, few are stopping to ask whether or not these young people or first time voters will ultimately be disenfranchised on Election Day and turned away from the polls. Despite the lack of cameras and fanfair for the SAVE volunteers, members of Congress were pleased with the young people who took the stand.

The day leading up to the hearing, SAVE even had a press conference with Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and 9 other members of Congress, all who stood up for the rights of young voters.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, one of members of the 30 Something Caucus, congratulated SAVE on their work saying she was surprised in the progress that has been made in just a little over a year.

SAVE has also launched their campaign to SAVE VOTING RIGHTS along with Campus Advantage that works to help students with problems around housing issues, and Headcount a voter registration group that signs young people up at live music events.

Thursday's success wasn't easy. Segal and his friends began testifying on the Hill 4 years ago when along with the rest of Kenyon College, he was forced to stand in line for 10 hours just to vote. The question to the committee :

"What standards or safeguards are in place to ensure that Kenyon College 2004 can never happen again?"

The answer, sadly, is there is no guarantee, merely "recommendations." This is the first time students and young people have had an opportunity to air the issues that face them in Washington. There have been hearings on disenfranchisement for African Americans, Spanish speaking Americans, overseas troops, many different communities... but never one focusing on students. The first step in guaranteeing this occurs, happened today thanks to SAVE's hard work.

"This democracy isn’t going to save itself" Segal said, "young people are stepping up, and that’s an inspiring story. Its time they are able to do so without fear."

SAVE lacks the glamor and non-stop excitment many young voter organizations provide. Instead, they work in the sometimes ugly world of Washington to write laws behind the scenes. They've championed Capitol Hill advocacy and formed careful and key relationships to garner results. From 10 hour lines to standing with the Majority Leader, the hope is to move even further toward more hearings and further investigation after the election to guarantee students' votes are counted.

They have earned the reputation of a group that gets things done.

"We are damn persistent" Segal laughs, "But we’re polite about it."

Word is leaking out about more attempts to suppress the student vote, this time in Colorado and New Mexico, two battleground states that went for Bush in 2004 and look to be swinging blue this year:

Washington - Colorado Democrats accused a Republican county clerk Wednesday of falsely informing Colorado College that students from outside the state could not register to vote if their parents claimed them as a dependent on their tax returns.

At a news conference in Colorado Springs, Democrats also criticized Robert Balink, the El Paso County clerk and recorder, who was a delegate to the Republican National Convention, for taking other steps they said would dampen voting by college students, who are expected to heavily favor Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

"When election officials spread false information about who is eligible to vote and remove, not add, polling places, we need to be concerned that eligible voters will be denied their right to vote," said Pat Waak, chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party.

Sujatha from the Student PIRGs did a little ninja work on this. Check out what she found:

Sujatha Jahagirdar, program director of the Student Public Interest Research Group's New Voters Project in Washington, said she encountered similar problems when she posed as a college freshman last week and called registrar's offices in Greenville County, S.C., home to Furman University, and York County, S.C., where Winthrop University is located.

Jahagirdar said a Greenville official asked if her parents listed her as a dependent, and when she replied in the affirmative, told her: "You should vote where your parents live." She said a York County representative asked if she was in town for school, and when she said yes, stated flatly: "You can't vote here."

This election is going to be won on the ground, and it's really a matter of whether or not the voter registration advantage Obama is building - particularly among young and first time voters - can hold up attempts to suppress the vote by Republicans, either through outright disenfranchisement, or by subtle discouragements such as long lines caused by a lack of polling places. If you encounter this in your neighborhood, remember to get in touch with the people at Student Voting Rights.

With registration deadlines, early voting, and election day fast approaching, there are a lot of concerns about protecting the voting rights of students. We've already seen some attempts at disenfranchisement in Waller County, Texas, and at Virginia Tech, and a new report - Vanishing Voters - put out by the PIRGs this week gives us even more cause for concern.

Considering the recent history of young voter disenfranchisement, I thought I'd highlight a few projects that are hoping to protect the vote.

Tomorrow, staffers from Student PIRG and SAVE, along with supportive elected officials, will be testifying before congress on the issue:

On Thursday, September 25th, the Committee on House Administration will hold a hearing – “Ensuring the Rights of College Students to Vote.” The purpose of the hearing is to hear from a range of expert witnesses about the challenges that face students when they vote and solutions that will overcome those barriers.

Sujatha Jahagirdar, Program Director for the Student PIRGs' New Voters Project, will testify about the barriers to student voting we have encountered in our decades of work on the ground to register young voters. Additional expert witnesses will include Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL); Sheri Iachetta, Deputy Registrar, Charlottesville County, Virginia; Marvin Krislov, President, Oberlin College; and Mathew Sagel, Executive Director, SAVE.

In an attempt to democratize the process, SAVE and the PIRGs are asking young people to submit their own questions to congress about student voting rights.

SAVE has also partnered with Campus Advantage to create a one-stop-shop for Student Voting Rights.

Just got this from Rock the Vote. They've done an excellent job this cycle calling attention to voting rights issues for veterans and now students:

Virginia Tech. Blacksburg,VA -- Today Rock the Vote is at Virginia Tech to shine a spotlight on a flagrant and offensive attempt made last month to scare Virginia college students away from registering to vote.

Voting rights violations are nothing new in our country - sadly, we have long history of targeting groups of people based on their race, socioeconomic status, or gender in attempts to keep them from registering and voting.

In the 1960s, politicians used police dogs and bloodshed; today, they use lies and threats and trickery, packaged in refined legalese. The tactics may appear less crude, but the aim is just as criminal and sinister. The most important right we have as Americans is the right to vote.

My father managed President Kennedy's run for the Presidency. He helped force integration in Mississippi and Alabama. He led the committee which advised the President during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And he fought hard to end the war in Vietnam.

But Robert Kennedy felt strongly, that the most important thing he did in his entire work life, was to fight for a little known set of Supreme Court decisions which established once and for all, the principle of One Man, One Vote. Robert Kennedy understood that the key to changing the United States was to use the political system-the power of the ballot to force change.

Voting Registrars in Montgomery County, Virginia, often the agents of the powers that for too long controlled this country have a long history of stopping young people from voting. Most of these kinds of methods were outlawed by the 1965 Civil Rights Act. But
now there are new ways to intimidate those of us who want change.

Now, the registrar here in Montgomery County has threatened to revoke the scholarships of any students who attempt to register to vote here. They want to stop you from forcing them to change. This election is the most important election in two generations. Do Not Be Intimidated. No matter who you vote for, go and vote. Take your roommate to get registered. Bring your sports teams in to register. Have your whole floor, your whole dorm register. Show them that you will not be intimidated, you will not be coerced, you will not bow down to their threats and bullying. Call everyone you know and get them to vote, but above all, you, yourself, each of you here, come to the desk at this bus, and register to vote.

Then Rock The Vote!

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).

Republicans think you are stupid and want to take away your voting rights:

MUNCIE -- A proposal to make early voting more accessible to Ball State University students has been met with skepticism by Delaware County's Republican Party chairman.
Advertisement

"If this is just a political ploy for this one election, I question if it is really a service to the people," Chairman Kaye Whitehead told The Star Press.

...

Whitehead said she was worried that early voting on campus would encourage uninformed students to cast ballots.

Such uninformed students, she said, would be more vulnerable to a concerted effort to buy votes with freebies, such as hot dogs.

"This is a serious election," she said. "You need voters who are informed."

So, young voters are:

• Uninformed
• Easily swayed by hot dogs (or iTunes gift cards)
• Not responsible enough to vote.

Miss Whitehead, the Constitution disagrees with you, and I hardly think that someone who's party is disproportionately made up of voters who believe that Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction should be talking about excluding uninformed voters from the electorate.

I bet this plays great with the young'ns in Indiana . . .

It's worth noting (twice in one day), that this is the second time within a week that a ranking member of the Republican Party made allusions to young voters being "bought off" - first by the GOP themselves, in an attempt to dissuade voting, now (hypothetically in the paranoid mind of a Republican operative) by Democrats looking to boost the vote.

Not only are such schemes blatantly illegal, they are supremely disparaging to the intelligence of young voters. The worldview required to even imagine such things is so incredibly cynical, is it any wonder that idealistic young voters are abandoning the Republican Party in droves?

• Hat tip to Tony Cani, the Political Director of the Young Democrats, for catching the most cynical youth story of the week. From the conservative Washington Times:
  

  Republicans can keep young voters who support Democratic nominee Barack Obama at home by giving their young relatives and friends gift cards to iTunes and Starbucks that are good only on Nov. 4, election day.

  “That’s the only way to keep them away from the polls,” said Kellyanne Conway, president of The Polling Company, during a breakfast with the delegates at their hotel near the University of Minnesota.

  Tony has the appropriate response.

• That last gem comes courtesy of a speaker addressing the Virginia delegation at the Republican National Convention. But I don't think the Virginia GOP needs any help suppressing the youth vote, they're already doing a bang-up job of that, according to this New York Times article. A local registrar near Virginia Tech is improperly and inaccurately threatening students with the loss of financial aid if they register to vote in the state.
• Meanwhile, in another swing state, the Ohio Secretary of State is actually doing her job and is taking precautions to prevent voter suppression at the polls in November.
• Everyone should read Glenn Greenwald's post about why McCain and Palin can lie with impunity on the stump.
• On September 18th, the Center for American Progress is hosting an event on Millennials and how they will reshape the electorate. RSVP here.
• AEI has their own event on Millennials as well. Let's say that their take is not so optimistic. Details and RSVP here.
• The WE Campaign, 1 Sky and Green for All are teaming up for a day of action to promote Green Jobs Now. So far there are 232 events scheduled for September 27th.
• YP4 is offering an online course (Free!) on how to fight the Religious Right. The course begins Sept. 15th.
• YP4 is also recruiting a new class of Fellows. Find out more here.
• The New York Times has an interesting piece on the state of the money-race, including an interesting bit about Obama donors collecting checks that will go to the state parties in Battlegrounds.