Obama Campaign Joins Lawsuit Against GOP Over 'Lose Your Home, Lose Your Vote' in Michigan

[bigtree]

Tuesday September 16, 2008


Obama Campaign Joins with Michigan Families Facing Foreclosure to Defend Voting Rights

Detroit, MI - The Obama Campaign and the Democratic National Committee are joining with three Michigan residents in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan to defend the lawful right of families facing foreclosure or who have lost their homes to vote in the November election.

"Senator McCain said last week that he was 'divorced from the day-to-day challenges people have,' and he certainly has proven that to Michigan families," said Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe. "Senator McCain has no real plan to turn Michigan's economy around or help families faced with losing their homes - so his party has decided the only way to save his campaign is to deny the right to vote to families most affected by his disastrous economic policies."

The complaint filed today seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to challenge the "lose your home, lose your vote" vote-suppression program adopted by the Macomb County Republican Party, in concert with the Michigan Republican Party and the Republican National Committee, as well as unnamed Defendants who will implement the scheme at polling places in Macomb County and throughout the State. This "lose your home, lose your vote" program is part of a broader scheme - misnamed an "election integrity" program - to harass voters and suppress the vote throughout the State of Michigan in the upcoming election on November 4.

In an interview with the Michigan Messenger last week, Macomb County Republican Party Chairman James Carabelli discussed GOP plans to systematically deny the vote to citizens who have wrestled with foreclosure, saying, "We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren't voting from those addresses." Nothwitstanding Carabelli's later denials that he meant what he said, the Complaint filed today shows how this "lose your home, lose your vote" program remains a live threat in Michigan and elsewhere in the country and why action by the courts is urgently needed to stop this attack on the rights of Americans who in hard times have lost or are about to lose their homes.

The complaint is available here: http://mi.barackobama.com/michigancomplaint

Also at RawStory: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama_team_files_suit_over_alleged_0916.html


link: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/laurinmanning/gG5XLS

[buff2]

1. That's good news

I'm glad Obama is staying on top of those sleazy tactics the repukes use. It's about time someone did. Lord knows Gore and Kerry didn't.

[Tripper11]

2. Excuse me? Is being foreclosed on a felony now?

This is a serious :wtf:

[secondwind]

3. no, it isn't that.....it's that you cannot vote if you do not have a REAL address

and if you are foreclosed on, perhaps your address change may not have been given in time to the voter registration folks. It is something like a Catch-22 situation.

[obamaforme]

4. Voters need to update voter registraton to reflect new address 3 weeks prior to

When you foreclose, you lose your permanent address. People in that position need to update their voter registration at least 3 weeks prior the election, the time needed for processing, to reflect their new adddress.