In case their was any doubt about the Republicans embrace of a vote-supression strategy for November, Dana's post should be a chilling reminder of what's coming. But I wanted to take a closer look at this piece in the Michigan Messenger by Eartha Jane Meltzer about Republicans planning to challenge voters who have lost their homes to foreclosure.
“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.”
A former DoJ lawyer thinks the practice may be illegal.
“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.”
Herbert calls the practice "mean-spirited" but it is more blatantly racist. More than 60 percent of sub-prime loans in the area were offered to black folks. Never underestimate the Republican Party's aptitude for discovering new and exciting ways to keep black people from voting. But while black Americans are the most likely targets of these efforts, it really speaks to the Republican Party's active hostility towards people who aren't rich.
You'd think the fact that Republicans are devoting their efforts not to increasing turnout, but instead to challenging people whose fates rest greatly on the outcome of this election would be a big story. But we're too busy talking about lipstick.
--A. Serwer
