Barack Obama is really taking enfranchisement seriously. Aside from launching an unprecedented voter registration drive, the Democratic presidential nominee is doing his best to prevent Republican voter suppression, particularly in a key battleground state:
A class action lawsuit has been filed to challenge what Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign says is an attempt to keep people facing foreclosure from voting. [...]
It asks for an injunction prohibiting the Macomb County GOP, the Michigan Republican Party and the Republican National Committee from challenging Michigan voters whose homes are on foreclosure lists.
For the context, check out this astonishing Michigan Messenger piece filed last week. According to reporter Eartha Jane Melzer, the chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan -- a key swing county north of Detroit that served as the original home of the so-called "Reagan Democrats" -- is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election:
"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.
The Michigan Republicans’ planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being “true residents.”
This, of course, is illegal. As a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department tells Melzer, a foreclosure notice is not a sufficient basis for a challenge, because "people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance.” And lo and behold, more than 60 percent of all sub-prime loans in Michigan were made to African-Americans, giving the whole enterprise a nasty racial and partisan feel to it. Sound familiar?
Republican officials in Ohio have also suggested they might try this practice to "safeguard the election." Hopefully, Obama's suit will halt these Midwestern voter caging practices in their tracks.
Comments
Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 09/17/2008 - 14:00
Glad Obamas people are wise to the dirty election tricks the republicans have been working on since 1999.
It's amazing how the right wing somehow thinks it is above the law in all matters. Does this perhaps have something to do (in their minds) with how many houses they own?
Or having so many houses (like McCain) that you forget exactly how many you have?
I knew McCain was in trouble when he was asked how much a gallon of milk and how much a gallon of gas was - and he said he would 'have to consult with his people he hired to make those purchases for him."
And this is the down to earth 'maverick' out to work for the little people? Who is kidding who?
Looks to me more like he has a lot of little people working for him.
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