GOP uses foreclosures to deny right to vote

If you had even a glimmer of hope that the Republicans care about free and fair elections or were willing to follow the spirit or letter of voting rights laws, this story should kablammo that notion clean out of your conscience.

In Macomb County, Michigan - one of the largest counties in the state - the Republicans are using a list of foreclosed homes to bar people from voting. Their excuse is that people are voting from the wrong addresses - but this claim is unfounded.

For starts, if a person's home has been foreclosed, they may still be living in the home while they negotiate the foreclosure. Perhaps the more important issue is that the effort is intended to deprive Americans of their right to vote at all.

All Americans have one official place of residence. If they are otherwise eligible voters, they are entitled to vote. Period. End of story. Federal law protects this right: All eligible voters may vote in presidential elections regardless of when they moved to their current residence.

Truth is, this effort makes the Republicans nothing but a rogue party. Political parties are expected to abide by the law and work within the framework of fair elections. The GOP has repeatedly opted to break the law. They did it in New Hampshire when they jammed the Democrats' phone banks, and they're doing it in Michigan by preventing foreclosure victims from exercising their federally protected right to vote.

The GOP's Michigan efforts are nothing short of classism. These efforts are illegal and evil. And they affect working-class voters of all races. Regardless of your color, or whether you're male or female, the GOP wants to keep you from voting. All because you don't have money.

Many states have strict residency requirements for voters because of classism. It's an effort to keep poor and working-class people from voting, as the poor and working class (by very definition) are less financially secure and may have a harder time not losing their home. This is also a reason why I think we need a federal law with stronger guarantees of voting rights.

Michigan law (as in Kentucky) lets political groups place people at voting places to challenge voters to make sure they live in the precinct where they're voting. That's how the Republicans plan to accomplish their goal of disfranchising foreclosure victims. Imagine what you can what the reaction would be if our side placed challengers in Republican precincts to challenge GOP voters.

It gets worse. It turns out that the founder of Michigan's largest law firm that helps execute foreclosures has raised at least $100,000 for the McCain campaign! Now there's a big conflict right there.

This vote suppression may not be limited to Michigan. Republicans in Franklin County, Ohio - one of that state's biggest counties - now say they also want to check foreclosure lists to weed out voters.

So it's spreading, folks! Keep an eye out for what's going on. If you're a foreclosure victim, and you have trouble voting, there's a good chance you've been targeted out of classism.

The GOP could very will win, but they will not be called legit by me (because of their Nazi-like vote suppression). I will defy their rule.

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