Democrats Sue Michigan GOP on Voter Issue

Tuesday 16 September 2008
by: Michael Falcone, The New York Times
via Truthout

Responding to allegations that Republican Party officials in Macomb County, Michigan plan to use home foreclosure lists to challenge voters at the polls in November, the Obama Campaign and the Democratic National Committee filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in federal court to prevent what they contended was an illegal practice.

Obama Campaign General Counsel Bob Bauer said that using home foreclosure lists as a basis for challenging voter eligibility would have a "deadly effect of the voting process" and argued that the practice would be illegal.

"This is a standard operating procedure within the Republican party that's been under legal challenge," Mr. Bauer said on a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.

Last week the chairman of the G.O.P. in Macomb County, James Carabelli, was quoted in the online publican, the Michigan Messenger, as saying that the party planned to use foreclosure lists to stop voters who no longer have valid addresses from casting their ballots.

"We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren't voting from those addresses," Mr. Carabelli was quoted as saying, according to a Sept. 10 article in the Michigan Messenger.

(Continued here.)