Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republicans
The 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.
“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.
State 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.”
The Michigan Republicans’ planned use of foreclosure lists is apparently an attempt to challenge ineligible voters as not being “true residents.”
One expert questioned the legality of the tactic.
“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.”
As for the practice of challenging the right to vote of foreclosed property owners, Hebert called it, “mean-spirited.”
GOP ties to state’s largest foreclosure law firm
The Macomb GOP’s plans are another indication of how John McCain’s campaign stands to benefit from the burgeoning number of foreclosures in the state. McCain’s regional headquarters are housed in the office building of foreclosure specialists Trott & Trott. The firm’s founder, David A. Trott, has raised between $100,000 and $250,000 for the Republican nominee.
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. 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, according to a report issued last year by the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Growth.
Challenges to would-be voters
Statewide, 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.
Whether the Republicans will challenge voters with foreclosed homes elsewhere in the state is not known.
Kelly 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.
Party chairman Carabelli said that the Republican Party is training election challengers to “make sure that [voters] are who they say who they are.”
When 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.”
Vote suppression: Not an isolated effort
Carabelli is not the only Republican Party official to suggest the targeting of foreclosed voters. In Ohio, Doug Preisse, member of the board of elections in Franklin County (around the city of Columbus) and the chair of the local GOP, told The Columbus Dispatch that he has not ruled out challenging voters before the election due to foreclosure-related address issues.
Hebert, the voting-rights lawyer, sees a connection between Priesse’s remarks and Carabelli’s plans.
“At a minimum what you are seeing is a fairly comprehensive effort by the Republican Party, a systematic broad-based effort to put up obstacles for people to vote,” he said. “Nobody is contending that these people are not legally registered to vote.
“When you are comprehensively challenging people to vote,” Hebert went on, “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,” who see a long line and realize they can’t afford to stay and wait.
Challenging all voters registered to foreclosed homes could disrupt some polling places, especially in the Detroit metropolitan area. According to the real estate Web site RealtyTrac, one in every 176 households in Wayne County, metropolitan Detroit, received a foreclosure filing during the month of July. In Macomb County, the figure was one household in every 285, meaning that 1,834 homeowners received the bad news in just one month. The Macomb County foreclosure rate puts it in the top three percent of all U.S. counties in the number of distressed homeowners.
Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Kent and Genessee counties were — in that order — the counties with the most homeowners facing foreclosure, according to RealtyTrac. As of July, there were more than 62,000 foreclosure filings in the entire state.
Joe Rozell, director of elections for Oakland County in suburban Detroit, acknowledged that challenges such as those described by Carabelli are allowed by law but said they have the potential to create long lines and disrupt the voting process. With 890,000 potential voters closely divided between Democratic and Republican, Oakland County is a key swing county of this swing state.
According to voter challenge directives handed down by Republican Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, voter challenges need only be “based on information obtained through a reliable source or means.”
“But poll workers are not allowed to ask the reason” for the challenges, Rozell said. In other words, Republican vote challengers are free to use foreclosure lists as a basis for disqualifying otherwise eligible voters.
David Lagstein, head organizer with the Michigan Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), described the plans of the Macomb GOP as “crazy.”
“You would think they would think, ‘This is going to look too heartless,’” said Lagstein, whose group has registered 200,000 new voters statewide this year and also runs a foreclosure avoidance program. “The Republican-led state Senate has not moved on the anti-predatory lending bill for over a year and yet [Republicans] have time to prey on those who have fallen victim to foreclosure to suppress the vote.”
Source: Michigan Messenger Lose your house, lose your vote
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
Well, I didn't read it all.. but i think he is right.. if your home is foreclosed you technically don't own a home and are therefore not a resident.
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Automatic.
Well, I didn't read it all.. but i think he is right.. if your home is foreclosed you technically don't own a home and are therefore not a resident.
That's not true, you still live and work in the state and pay taxes, the only thing your address usually determines is your polling station.
In just to be clear, there is a huge problem with this, and that's the fact you can still be living in the home that's been foreclosed on, so they would still be your address.
and when will the list be Generated? Because if your home is foreclosed on, on Oct. 23 then what are you supposed to do? Because voter registration is closed and you can't change your address so your in a limbo.
anyway you look at it its a cheap ploy.
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Automatic.
Well, I didn't read it all.. but i think he is right.. if your home is foreclosed you technically don't own a home and are therefore not a resident.
LMAO, you fucking idiot.
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
YEP I IZ AN IDIOT!!!l!!
edit: OH WAIT NVM MY DAD OWNS A REAL ESTATE COMPANY THAT IVE BEEN MANAGING SINCE I WAS A FRESHMAN IN HIGH SCHOOL... I GUESS I KNOW WAT I IZ TALKIN BOUT LOL
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
all playing around aside, real estate laws differ by state, county, and city. Here, a foreclosed home means the person living there is no longer a resident at the house. Whenever we evict someone I have to go to the county office and let them know.
If this is actually getting passed, then obviously their laws are similar.
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Automatic.
all playing around aside, real estate laws differ by state, county, and city. Here, a foreclosed home means the person living there is no longer a resident at the house. Whenever we evict someone I have to go to the county office and let them know.
If this is actually getting passed, then obviously their laws are similar.
Well considering in the Article it says that people can still live in the home in some cases after the home has been foreclosed on obviously they are not. did you read it? I don't mean that to insult you but if they are letting people live in the house that's where they live, there for they're polling place would be the same. in effect they are still state residents and regardless if they own a home or not they still have the right to vote they are still US citizens if they take away their right to vote it is mainly because they have the wrong address on file.
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
just because you don't have a fucking home doesn't mean you can't vote...there's a difference in owning a home being a requirement to vote and being a United States citizen being a requirement to vote
you must be confusing the two
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
to vote in certain states you need a physical address to register and if you don't own a home then you don't have a physical address.
but like i said, laws vary by state, county and city and i don't care enough to look that shit up. like i said i didn't even read the article lol
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SmokaJoka
just because you don't have a fucking home doesn't mean you can't vote...there's a difference in owning a home being a requirement to vote and being a United States citizen being a requirement to vote
you must be confusing the two
AMEN!!! imagion taking away someones right to vote because you don't have they're current address on file, you can't even try to get much lower then that...lmao at the party trying to even cliam they care for the people when they try to pull shit like this.
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Automatic.
to vote in certain states you need a physical address to register and if you don't own a home then you don't have a physical address.
but like i said, laws vary by state, county and city and i don't care enough to look that shit up. like i said i didn't even read the article lol
they have already established residency and registered to vote in that state, and your not acknowledging the fact that THEY HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE IN THE HOUSE AFTER FORECLOSURE IN THAT STATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
so they may still live there that's is there fucking address
and trying to pull this so close to the deadline is also bullshit they should have had this in place for months if they even wanted to try to pull this off
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
wow@this shit.
it's dudes like this that need to be all tied up and thrown off a fucking bridge.
seriously.
shit is so blatantly wrong man.
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
i say if you pay ya taxes you should be able to vote no matter what.
nobody ever heard of people fallin on hard times????
that shit happens alot.
this is basically sayin the poor can't vote.
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
anyone else see the connection with this? The housing market has been so messed up these last couple years, and now they're trying to pull this 'if you don't own a house you can't vote' card. Correct me if im wrong but most of the people that are getting hit by the housing market crisis is the middle to lower class, which are more likely to vote obama.
Re: Lose your house. Lose your vote...damn Republi
Quote:
Originally Posted by
dr lazer blast
anyone else see the connection with this? The housing market has been so messed up these last couple years, and now they're trying to pull this 'if you don't own a house you can't vote' card. Correct me if im wrong but most of the people that are getting hit by the housing market crisis is the middle to lower class, which are more likely to vote obama.
BEANGO!
border line racist