Give us the FEMA evacuee lists

[Anita Garcia]

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana officials are wrongly denying elected officials access to a Federal Emergency Management Agency list that shows where displaced registered voters are living, a state senator said Tuesday.

In a letter to Attorney General Charles Foti, state Sen. Cleo Fields, D-Baton Rouge, said that elected officials and voting groups have the right to obtain this information so they can contact voters. Fields pointed to a December letter from a FEMA attorney that said the state could give out the information "for voting purposes to the same extent as is authorized under Louisiana law."
. . . .
Renee Free, the first assistant secretary of state, said state law allows her office to give out a voter registration list, but not necessarily a database that shows where registered voters from regions struck by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have moved. Free said her office has asked Foti to determine whether the list of displaced voters could be considered a voter registration list under state law.
<http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1138172118132380.xml>

[OKNancy]

1. Please edit your subject line

within the hour to conform to the Subject line rules. It should read:
Fields wants to see FEMA's voter list


Thank You
OK Nancy
LBN Moderator

[Anita Garcia]

10. Sorry for the mistake.

Unable to edit.

[AzDar]

2. ..Keeping those fatality numbers artificially low, eh? Heckuva job!

[babylonsister]

3. No, they don't want evacuated Katrina survivors to be

able to vote because guess which way that would go? So their solution is to not release the lists of where they currently are.

[AzDar]

4. Ah! I am so very suspicious of the fact that no REAL accounting of

fatalities has been released; with so many people still officially "missing", whether relocated or deceased,it's quite easy to obfuscate.

[babylonsister]

5. There are so many issues surrounding

what happened before, during, and after Katrina, and how the gov't fell down on the job, how inept FEMA is, what the exact body count is and where the missing people wound up, who is still living in tents and WHY, how will people be assured their right to vote is honored, that I understand how confusing it can all be. Too bad on all things, not just Katrina, the gov't isn't being truthful and is withholding evidence. I used to think that was illegal. :mad:

[filibusterphil]

6. The initial reason for not giving out the list

was to protect the identities of people with warrants and sex offender registrations. The state actually had to provide a list of sex offenders to FEMA and they checked their lists against it. When you regsiter with FEMA you give them alot of personal info so that is why it is guarded.

FEMA could give Fields the list but I would doubt more than 45% of the people would vote - that is all we would get on a sunny day before the storm......

[babylonsister]

7. They should at least have the option to vote; perhaps their

outrage is enough that it'd get the survivors to the polls. And welcome to DU, filibusterphil! :hi:

[filibusterphil]

8. Thanks for the welcome but I have been DUer

for a while. Lost my computer et al and am just getting back into the swing. I agree they should have the option - I just know my New Orleans people... The election is set for April 22 so there should be enough time, we'll see. Maybe if they provided free hurricanes....

[newyawker99]

9. Hi filibusterphil!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast: