Voter rights being challenged in Michigan

[measi]

http://www.michiganmessenger.com/4076/lose-your-house-lose-your-vote

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.

from further down in the article...


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.

Comments

Grrr

[talonscar.livejournal.com]

If I were a less reasonable man I'd recommend that any person organizing the effort to deny others the right to vote be murdered in a back alley.

[violetscorpion.livejournal.com]

Wow. Thank you for my daily dose of jaw droppage.

Really starting to hate it here in Michigan.

[measi.livejournal.com]

The sad thing is that it doesn't surprise me... and I'm NOT talking from a Michigan perspective here, although your state has things harder than most due to the highest unemployment rate in the nation.

Virginia's going through similar b.s. telling students they can't register to vote at school, or they'll default on their dependent status on their parents (and get their loans removed). It's totally false, and meant to scare kids away.

But IMHO, this foreclosure thing is far nastier because while students can register and vote absentee, not so if people are removed from the rolls completely for not being "residents."

[violetscorpion.livejournal.com]

It honestly doesn't surprise me, either. That Virginia situation is downright crappy, too. Way to make someone not vote.

What I definitely don't like about this is that the foreclosure process is so long. I just worked on a case where it took more than 3 years to go from "Notice Of Foreclosure" to "Judgment Of Foreclosure," and then there's an amount of time before the case is truly "closed," because the time for appeal still has to run out. After that time, then, sure, there's a valid point, because then you're definitely not supposed to be in the house. At the same time, now we're monitoring addresses? Good grief. What will be thought of next?

[whishastar.livejournal.com]

That's so stupid and despicable. If you have the best candidate, why be worried about other people voting? Encourage them to get out and vote! In theory, that's what they whole system is about.

I don't know why people don't make a bigger deal about this stuff than they do. >_

[balance0.livejournal.com]

Not that I have any affect on this, but I just thought it'd be interesting to note that I now live in Macomb County, MI

Other than when I show up at the polls...interestingly enough, they didn't ask me what party when I got my driver's liscense and they asked me did I want to register to vote. They just did, and my voter card doesn't say one way or the other

Oh, sorry, I live in OAKLAND county according to the voter reg (I just looked to see if there was a blank "party" line - but I live in the border of 3 counties