Get involved today! Be a Poll Worker or a Poll Monitor!
An interesting kerfluffle has arisen in Michigan. No doubt the Obama campaign had an ulterior motive in picking Michigan. After all, they have a lot of PR work to do in making up for their own delegate theft. That Michigan might turn out to be one of the battleground states, makes the stakes all the higher. So recently this little tidbit came out:
Former GOP operative explains why Republicans will use foreclosure lists to block voters
By EARTHA JANE MELZER 9/15/08 10:05 AM
Unfair but “probably” legal, using foreclosure lists provides a cheap and effective strategy for McCain campaign
[Last week we reported about Republican plans to use home foreclosure lists to block voters from the polls after James Carabelli, chair of the Macomb County Republican Party, told Michigan Messenger that on election day Republican volunteers will “have a list of foreclosed homes and make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses.”
Republican leaders have since disavowed plans to use foreclosure lists as part of their plan to challenge the eligibility of some voters, but an attorney for the party, Eric Doster, did confirm that the party would use returned mail to challenge voters based on residency. As veteran Republican activist Allen Raymond told Michigan Messenger in a recent interview, holding down Democratic turnout is a key part of Republican strategy for victory in November.]
Then the Iowa Independent, a sister paper, reported that Obama had begun a Michigan lawsuit:
Michigan sister site’s voter suppression story sparks Obama lawsuit
By CHASE MARTYN 9/16/08 1:17 PM
[After our sister site, the Michigan Messenger, published a story in which a GOP activist revealed plans to challenge voters using foreclosure records, Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign has launched a lawsuit to prevent the challenges from taking place;…..Bauer called the GOP plan to use foreclosure lists “a new and especially repellent version of caging.”]
http://iowaindependent.com/5605/michigan-sister-sites-voter-suppression-story-sparks-obama-lawsuit
The Washington Independent, another sister newspaper based in DC, had this follow up article:
Obama Lawyer: Michigan Foreclosure Tactic ‘Caging’
By LAURA MCGANN 9/16/08 1:57 PM
[Over at our sister site Michigan Messenger, Ed Brayton reports that the lawyer representing Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign in a class-action, voting rights lawsuit is calling a GOP tactic to prevent Michigan residents in foreclosure from voting a new form of “caging.”
From Brayton:
“Caging is a technique of challenging voters where they take lists of addresses, mail to them with a “do not forward” marking and if for whatever reason those mailings are returned, they use this as a basis for claiming that the voter no longer lives at the address at which they are registered.”
A former Karl Rove aide, Tim Griffin, has long been accused of using the voter suppression tactic to keep turnout among black voters in Duval County, Florida low in the 2004 presidential election. No smoking gun has ever confirmed Griffin’s use of caging, but some serious evidence suggests he did.]
http://www.washingtonindependent.com/6101/obama-lawyer-michigan-foreclosure-tactic-caging
In true “kill the messenger” style the GOP began bullying the Michigan Messenger:
GOP official threatens to sue Messenger
By JEFFERSON MORLEY 9/16/08 3:09 PM
[After the Obama campaign filed suit today against the Michigan Republican party seeking to block plans to use foreclosure lists to challenge voters at the polls in November, James Carabelli, the Macomb County GOP chair, responded with a press release threatening legal action against the Michigan Messenger, which broke the story of his party’s plans last week.
The Messenger, and its sponsor, the nonprofit Center for Independent Media in Washington, D.C., have stated publicly they stand by the story 100 percent.]
http://www.michiganmessenger.com/4480/gop-official-threatens-to-sue-messenger
It will be interesting to see how this turns out. Ohio just went through a similar, event, without Obama’s campaign getting directly involved.
Update: Ohio Removes Vote Caging Possibility
Ohio directive issued Friday says 60-day notice can’t be used to challenge voters.
Then there is this battle going on in New Mexico. You may remember that just before Hurricane IKE the Obama Campaign was asking volunteers to travel from Texas to help with the campaign in New Mexico. Now of course, since IKE has come and gone, so at least part of the voting block registration, proof of abode and the plight of people in Texas, has been blown away. So it’s hard to see that a whole lot of people are going to trundle right over to NM.
Voting Rules Create Land of Disenchantment
Advocacy groups are battling New Mexico’s strict voter registration laws as election looms.
Getting those votes is more serious stuff then ever. I’ll bet those Obama organizational grassroots, Vote America, MoveOn, and Acorn are looking pretty brown right now. Talk about the fox guarding the hen house! Between the DNC and the RNC(GOP) squabbling over these over these votes and the underhanded tricks involved, it’s clear that more than ever we need voter reform. if you haven’t see the Brad Blog, check it out. He’s got years of these going-ons listed. If you are a PUMA, you already know about Heidi Li’s Caucus Fraud website but I’ll list it again just in case. My vote is that this year, in addition to trained poll workers, just to get through this election we will need more poll monitors than ever. Yes, I know they can’t prevent everything, but at least documentation would help. Verified Voter has info on how to be a Poll Monitor:
[Guidelines for Observing at the Polls:The legitimacy of elections depends on transparency “the ability of voters, concerned citizens, federal observers, and watchdog groups to observe the process of the election. Although you cast your vote in private, and no one has the right to know how or for whom you voted, the procedures by which the election is run can and should be observed in a healthy democracy.]
I Own My Vote, Just Say NO Deal, PUMA PAC, The Denver Group
Grab and Keel 
thanks so much for you work
LikeLike