your vote. Today the Michigan Messenger reported that
Michigan Republicans plan to foreclose African American voters
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.
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.
Challenging voters, epecially black voters, in Detorit is one way to slow down and disrupt and discourage voters. This haas the potential to make the lines at the polls very long and confrontational. And look here, seems like this is the modus operandi in Columbus, Ohio as well. July 6, 2008 The Columbus Dispatch writes
If there's Election Day disorder brewing for 2008, it might well be rooted in the nation's mortgage-foreclosure crisis. In Columbus, across Ohio and in other key presidential battlegrounds, more people losing their homes means more registered to vote from addresses where they no longer live.
Columbus ranked 32nd among U.S. cities in the number of foreclosure filings during the first quarter of 2008, according to RealtyTrac, a Web site that lists homes on the market in most cities. Cleveland, Dayton, Akron, Toledo and Cincinnati also were among the top 50, and Ohio was ninth among states during May, with one filing for every 410 homes.
Other battleground states rank high in foreclosure filings as well: Nevada led the nation in May with one filing for every 118 homes, while Florida was fourth, Michigan fifth, Georgia sixth, Colorado seventh and New Jersey 10th.
So if you've lost your home, you'll lose your vote as well unless you've been diligent about changing your address.
Ohio's 2-year-old requirement that voters show identification at the polls makes it more important that they keep their registration information current, said Jeff Ortega, a spokesman for Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.
Statewide, a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts is paying to include voter-registration forms in post-office change-of-address kits. Damschroder said Franklin County voters who have filled out postal-address changes will get another reminder in the mail this summer to update their registration as well.
Disenfranchising people who have lost their homes due to the Republican mismanagement of our economy is beyond the pale. First you screw em and then you make sure they can't do anything about it because you know that anyone who has lost their home is unlikely to thank you for the privilege.