Can someone explain to me the mechanics of how McCain voter caging is supposed to happen?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

I'm reading various breathless accounts of the McCain absentee ballots being sent to people in various states. How can these be a part of voter caging?

1. If they are returned to the McCain people as "undeliverable" then McCain people will file your name in a database and have operatives waiting for you at the polls on election day to challenge your registration based on "you don't live at that address" or something, where you either can't vote or have to vote by provisional ballot? This is the main mechanism I've heard of and understand, but as long as you get the mail at your house, if you don't return it, your name shouldn't show up on the list, right? Also, if you have a driver's license that shows your address is correct, wouldn't that override such a challenge?

2. Is part of the goal to pick up people in Dem heavy neighborhoods who haven't registered yet, and if you (say elderly or mentally not too with it) send in their absentee ballot request, it either winds up nowhere (if they left a wrong address on the application or envelope), or if it goes to them, they simply tear it up or whatever, so you think you've registered or requested an absentee ballot but you didn't?

Please fill in if there are other's I've missed or failed to understand.

In most states can you just call or look online to check the current status of your registration?

Should we and the Obama campaign promulgate the message that any ballot type mailers from McCain or the RNC should be torn up but definitely NOT sent "return to sender"?

I hear these stories, but what are the specific actions that should be taken?

-Tell people to check on their registration?
-Tell people to bring driver's license or proof of address to the polls?
-Tell people not to use the McCain/RNC absentee ballot mailers? Save/scan/photocopy them as evidence?

Does this sound reasonable? Is there anything I'm missing?

[countmyvote4real]

1. Keeping caging mail simple (as i understand it)

If caging mail is returned as undeliverable (for any reason) the addressee's voter registration can be challenged.

Having said that, I don't know
1. How to recognize caging mail.
2. How to overturn a voter registration challenge. That includes what documentation will be recognized by my local laws. (Drivers license, utility bill, passport, etc.)

I think we should be concerned. Thanks for bringing it up.

[tannybogus]

2. Here you go:

What Is Voter Caging?
Caging is a generic term that describes the sorting of returned direct-mail pieces sometimes to process contributions, and sometimes to weed out unprofitable addresses. The term is reportedly derived from the postal cubby holes, resembling cages, that are used for sorting mail.<2> In many of its applications, caging is both standard practice and benign.

Voter caging is a distinct form of caging, and much more dangerous. Voter caging is the practice of sending mail to addresses on the voter rolls, compiling a list of the mail that is returned undelivered, and using that list to purge or challenge voters registrations on the grounds that the voters on the list do not legally reside at their registered addresses.

Supporters of voter caging defend the practice as a means of preventing votes cast by ineligible voters. Voter caging, however, is notoriously unreliable. If it is treated (unjustifiably) as the sole basis for determining that a voter is ineligible or does not live at the address at which he or she registered, it can lead to the unwarranted purge or challenge of eligible voters.

Moreover, these purges or challenges are seldom neutral. Voter caging is almost always pursued with partisan aims, and caging lists are often targeted expressly at registered members of the opposing party. Moreover, the practice has often been targeted at minority voters, making the effects even more pernicious. In 1986, for example, a notorious memorandum unearthed in litigation, sent from one regional party political director to another, described the likely effect of a voter caging program on the upcoming Senate race in Louisiana:

I know this race is really important to you. I would guess that this program will eliminate at least 60-80,000 folks from the rolls. . . . If it’s a close race, which I’m assuming it is, this could keep the black vote down considerably.

http://www.brennancenter.org/content/resource/a_guide_to_voter_caging/

Read the rest of the article. It explains in detail why this process may purge an eligible voter.:hi: