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Macomb County Michigan GOP To Use Voter Caging To Suppress Votes
James Carabelli, chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County, Michigan, recently announced plans to challenge voters eligibility by using a list developed from home foreclosures. The election challenge would be based on residency. “We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses.â€However, Teresa James, attorney for the voting rights organization Project Vote, and author of the 2007 report Caging Democracy: A 50-Year History of Partisan Challenges to Minority Voters, says the County 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. Just because you’re behind on your mortgage doesn’t mean you lose the right to vote. All a foreclosure filing tells anyone is that the owners are behind on their mortgage; it does not mean a voter has necessarily moved. Foreclosures take time.” And even if the plan is to only challenge voters whose homes have actually been sold at auction, the challengers will still achieve nothing but to slow-down voting and create an intimidating atmosphere at strategically chosen polls.
Michigan law says challenges may be made at the polls if the challenger “knows or has good reason to suspect†a voter is ineligible. The Republican Michigan Secretary of State has clarified this to require 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 eligible voters have moved and are no longer eligible to vote.
In the mean time United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee called on U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to launch a full-scale investigation into reports Michigan Republicans plan to use home foreclosure lists to challenge voters on Election Day. The committee also scheduled a hearing on the matter for Wednesday.
In a letter to Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, released simultaneously, Democratic Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Detroit, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, asked McCain to denounce any efforts by the Republican Party to engage in voter suppression, including challenges based on a voter’s home foreclosure status. Conyers requested McCain direct his supporters to refrain from using the caging tactic.
McCain’s campaign announced the formation of an Honest and Open Election Committee’ its mission is ” to ensure that every qualified citizen has the opportunity to vote in a fair and transparent manner.â€A news release issued by the McCain campaign the Web site announced on September 15, “The committee will work with state and local election officials to anticipate, and where possible resolve in advance, problems likely to arise on Election Day. stay tuned folks, and buckle up for safety. It’s gonna be a bumpy ride.
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