Lose Your House, Lose Your Vote?

Nervous about the November elections, Republicans are turning to one of their oldest and most successful election season tactics: voter suppression. From the Michigan Messenger:

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 procedures were followed.

This is disgusting and un-American. Not only have the Republicans fought tooth and nail against restrictions on predatory lending that may have helped prevent the foreclosure crisis, but now they want to victimize the people who have lost their homes a second time by denying them their right to vote. And that’s not all…

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.

21st Century Democrats has been working with State Rep. Andy Meisner, who is running for County Treasurer, to register new voters and increase turnout. Republicans want to make Michigan the Ohio of 2004 or the Florida of 2000, but they can’t if we don’t let them.

Please consider making a contribution to 21st Century Democrats’ Field Organizer Fund and help put more trained activists on the ground in Michigan to get our the vote for Democrats.

Andy Meisner with some volunteers at a parade this summer. As Oakland County Treasurer, Meisner will focus on protecting property values and preventing foreclosures.