Thanks to Mudflats for the heads up:
From: Michigan Messenger » Lose your house, lose your vote.
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. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedure were followed.
If the people in Michigan who have lost their homes are not allowed to vote, then the people who lost their homes in Texas should lose their votes as well.
(edit 1: Tags, formating)
Update 1: It appears that the Michigan Messenger story is bullshit all over the place. Furthermore, it does not appear that forclosure can be used as a challenge to a vote, according to J. Gerald Hebert:
… a former voting rights litigator for the U.S. Justice Department who now runs the Campaign Legal Center, was asked about the report. He said that a foreclosure notice is probably not sufficient “for a challenge, because people often remain in their homes after foreclosure begins and sometimes are able to negotiate and refinance.”
I am still waiting for additional information regarding residency and voting in requirement.
Update 2: Added the Law.Com story.
Actually under the residency requirements, the people ANYWHERE who’ve been foreclosed on can’t vote unless they have filed in their new precinct – assuming they have one.
That is and has been the law. We’ll have to see if it’s fairly enforced though – I could see both sides in swing precincts misusing this.
Jonolan: Can you please link to the site that has information on this topic?
Here’s the federal regulations. You’ll have to check each state for specific requirements; they vary in detail.
http://www.fvap.gov/reference/laws/vote-reg-guide/index.html
Jonolan:
You linked info for military personnel and expats. I did find this,
“The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) of 1993, requires that individuals be given the opportunity to register to vote or to change their voter registration data when applying for or receiving services or assistance at any office designated as a voter registration agency. ”
Which would lead me to think that a person who has lost their house would be allowed to register their new address.
If a person has moved, Michigan requires:
“Whenever you move to a new city or township, you must re-register to vote. If you move within a city or township, you must update your address. This can be handled through your local clerk, at a Secretary of State branch office, or by mail. Michigan voters must use the same residential address for voter registration and driver’s license purposes. Consequently, if you submit a driver’s license address change, it will be applied to your voter registration. Similarly, if you submit a voter registration address change, it will be applied to your driver’s license.”
If a person is in the process of foreclosure and still lives in on that property, then they are still eligible to vote in that district, at least according to J. Gerald Hebert, the gentleman quoted in the updated post.
Weird story that got a lot of traction very quickly; John Conyers was beating McCain over the head with it a little while ago (despite the fact that McCain wouldn’t have had anything to do with the detailed workings of a county GOP chapter, I guess). We’ll have to see what else shakes out of this.
Looks like Macomb is a heavily split county politically; I went back and dug up 2004 vote results. It went for Bush over Kerry by 6000 votes, but has two House districts in it; the 10th Congressional went 69% for the Republican, the 12th went 64% for the Democrat.
It’ll depend then – as far as legitimacy goes – if the foreclosure list is a list of foreclosed homes or homes in the process of foreclosure. My personal bet is that it’s the former.
And given the history of republican voter suppression operations, I’d vote the latter. Thus far, I have not seen anything to indicate that these lists are a valid tool to challenge the voter rolls.