- Daily Photo: Obama Jokes Around at G-20
- Blackwater gets replaced in Iraq
- Daily Photo: U.S. Marines Look Out for Taliban in Afghanistan
- Hillary Clinton the Tomboy and Her "Ah-Ha" Moment
- Obama Administration Sudan Envoy Headed to Region
- Daily Photo: Potential Flashpoint in Iraq
- Clinton Says New Afghanistan-Pakistan Plan Depends on Diplomacy
- Exclusive: Three Israeli Airstrikes Against Sudan
- Additional 4,000 Troops to Be Ordered to Afghanistan
- Daily Photo: Navy Submarine Trains in the Arctic
- Alarm Over North Korea Missile Prep
- Anti-Terror Stimulus? US Offers Rewards for Top Terrorists
- Daily Photo: Pakistani Women in Refugee Camp
- Condoleezza Rice Appears on "The Tonight Show"
- Diplomat and Aid Group Sound the Alarm on Darfur Camp Situation
- auto industry rescue
- Ballotwatch
- Biden, Joe
- Bush, George W.
- Clinton, Bill
- Clinton, Hillary
- Dodd, Chris
- Edwards, John
- Giuliani, Rudy
- Gravel, Mike
- Huckabee, Mike
- Hunter, Duncan
- Inauguration
- Iraq
- Kucinich, Dennis
- McCain, John
- Obama, Barack
- Palin, Sarah
- Paul, Ron
- Romney, Mitt
- Tancredo, Tom
- Thompson, Fred
- Veepstakes
- Vote 2008: Democrats
- Vote 2008: Republicans
- Washington
- White House
« Previous | Main | Next »
Obama Campaign Pushes Back Against Possible Voter Suppression
September 16, 2008 3:13 PM
ABC News' Karen Travers and Arnab Datta report: The Obama campaign and DNC have filed an injunction in federal court as an effort to challenge what they deem as illegal voter suppression of people whose houses are in foreclosure.
The injunction is in response to the comments last week from the Macomb County (MI) Republican Party chairman, James Carabelli, who allegedly said: "We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses."
On a conference call with reporters, Bob Bauer, general counsel for the Obama campaign, said this practice is illegal and would be used to intimidate and prevent people from going to the polls.
Bauer said that one out of every 285 households in Macomb County have been foreclosed on and MI Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer said that in July 2008 alone, over 11,000 households in Michigan received foreclosures notices.
Bauer and Brewer could not cite specific examples of this already happening in Michigan this cycle. ABC News' Chris Bury reports that Carabelli denies ever saying the statements that were attributed to him in the Michigan Messenger.
Joe Biden addressed this yesterday at an event in Michigan, stating "ladies and gentlemen, I heard, I was told yesterday that there's a Republican County Chairman right here in your state, in Michigan, that said that they're keeping a list of foreclosed homes, suggesting that anyone who lost their home in foreclosure should also lose their right to vote." He added, "if you're worried about losing your home, you should vote, you should vote for the guys who are going to help you keep your home, not those who take it away."
UPDATE: In a paper statement today, Carabelli pushes back hard against the Messenger's reporting.
“This story is not true. The Michigan Messenger made it up,” Carabelli said. “Because of reckless and fabricated reporting by the Michigan Messenger, my good name has been besmirched on the Internet and across the mainstream media and my reputation irrevocably harmed. I never said what the Michigan Messenger quoted me as saying. It’s not true, and I want a full and complete retraction of the quote, and I am taking legal action to get it. Let me state, again and unequivocally, there is no such plan to use foreclosure lists to challenger voters, and I never said there was. This is a story line being pushed by one liberal blog, the Obama campaign, and their friends and operatives on the Left.”
September 16, 2008 in McCain, John, Obama, Barack, Vote 2008: Democrats, Vote 2008: Republicans | Permalink | User Comments (207)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
harley davidson
i dont think you can attribute teh dead casting votes as an obama stunt seeing as how it was bush and rove who used those tactics
moron the republicans rig elections, the dems do not
Posted by: Bhrandon | Sep 16, 2008 4:01:18 PM
We have had that in Missouri. Many blacks in St. Louis were "too late to vote" in 2004. The polls closed with people in line. And now an attempt to make the ID laws so strict people will be discouraged. The Obama campaign should be looking at every state because the Republicans will suppress votes wherever they can. If you face home foreclosure, they'll try to keep you from voting, but if you live in Texas in a wealthy area and are out of your home because of storm damage, they'll find a way for you to vote.
Posted by: JAB | Sep 16, 2008 4:03:43 PM
Republicans need to adopt Obama's ACORN strategy where dead people vote early and often.
Posted by: HarleyDavidson | Sep 16, 2008 4:04:38 PM
Bhrandon, I'm soooo tired of your mind numbingly stupid posts - GET A JOB YOU LOSER!!!!
Posted by: Thinking | Sep 16, 2008 4:04:40 PM
George Bush: KING OF VOTER FRAUD, INTIMIDATION, STEALING ELECTIONS, AND CREATING FEAR GROUPS WITHIN NEIGHBORHOODS. REMEMBER, PEOPLE, THE REPUBLICAN PARTY DID THIS AND WORSE BEFORE. THEY ACTUALLY "SPIED" AND "INFILTRATED" PRIVATE IN HOME DEMOCRATIC AND OTHERWISE ANTI BUSH OR ANTI IRAQ DISCUSSION GROUPS. THESE WERE GROUPS OF ORDINARY AMERICANS. NOT YOUR SCARY BOOGEY MAN TERRORIST GUYS. THEY HAD THEIR KNITTING, THEIR BOOKS, AND THEY WERE TAKEN AWAY BY FEDS, WITH NO EXPLANTION, AND JAILED FOR NO REASON OTHER THAN "HOMELAND SECURITY".
NEIGHBORHOODS ALL THROUGHOUT FLORIDA ESPECIALLY THE MINORITY NEIGHBORHOODS, AND THOSE WITH ELDERLY CITIZENS WHO COULD NOT DRIVE, HAD STRANGERS SHOWING UP AT THE ENDS OF THEIR DRIVEWAYS IN BLACK SUITS, AND STANDING AT THEIR DOORS, ASKING WHERE THE THOUGHT THEY WERE GOING. THE HAD A LIST OF REGISTERED DEMOCRATS, AND ESPECIALLY MINORITIES. IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST INCSENDING EXAMPLES OF VOTER INTIMIDATION, AND NOW I CA TELL YOU PEOPLE ARE ACTUALLY AFRAID IN THIS AREA TO EVEN PUT OUT A DEMOCRATIC SIGN, FOR FEAR OF REPURCUSSIONS.
THIS IS TRUE, WE LIVED IT.
YOU CAN SAY ALL YOU WANT TO.
WE SAW THIS WITH OUR OWN EYES.
WE REPORTED IT TO OUR LOCAL PAPERS.
WE LIVE IN A COUNTRY WHERE IF YOU DON'T WATCH WHAT YOU SAY IN PUBLIC, OU CAN GET TAKEN AWAY.
WELCOME TO THE UNITED FEDERATION OF BUSHERICA.
Posted by: pamela | Sep 16, 2008 4:11:52 PM
Obama's democratic party motto:
Dead and nonexistent people can’t be polled, but they do vote
Posted by: HarleyDavidson | Sep 16, 2008 4:13:23 PM
Michigan is a "swing state" and Repukans will do anything they can to win it. Just like FLorida all over again.
Posted by: pamela | Sep 16, 2008 4:13:40 PM
yes the republican campaign begans in earnest and will the governors of all the states that were hurt by the last bad hurricans tha lost so much lose also their right to vote because they heeded warnings to move to safety.watch the republicans jump on this matter aas people try to come to grips with waht has happened and worry more about where they will live or find new jobs etc instead of reregistering,IMO something like this should have no effect on weather or not you have the right to vote because of misplacement due to an act of nature
Posted by: maryjane | Sep 16, 2008 4:15:44 PM
The Michigan branch of Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), located in Detroit, is being investigated after several municipal clerks reported fraudulent and duplicate voter registration applications coming through.
The majority of the fraudulent and duplicate applications are coming from the liberal ACORN group based in Detroit, Michigan, which now has ACORN investigating the problem once again as well as the Secretary of State's Office turning over some of those applications to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
According to the report by Freep.com, the spokeswoman for the Michigan Secretary of State's Office, Kelly Chesney, says there is a "sizeable number of duplicate and fraudulent applications. And it appears to be widespread."
Posted by: HarleyDavidson | Sep 16, 2008 4:17:19 PM
This is going to be the biggest issue we Americans, who really care about our country have to deal with.
It is really sad that the politicians are able to get some people so emotionally caught up in BS, that they are willing to give up on our Democracy in order to 'win'.
Posted by: Truth Matters | Sep 16, 2008 4:18:14 PM
These GOP residency challenges were apparently to be targeted only in "certain" areas. And the objective is clearly not only to disenfranchise the directly challenged voter (who may in fact still reside in the foreclosed property, may be renting from a foreclosed-upon property owner, or be the new owner of a property that had previously been subject to foreclosure); but to disenfranchise MANY OTHER VOTERS in the precinct.
That is the even bigger story. Working people who are missing work in order to vote, single parents with children at home, elderly who cannot endure long periods of standing, and so on, may not be able to wait for hours and hours to vote while the person at the top of the line faces a time-consuming residency challenge.
I am a long time poll worker, so I speak from experience. Any time there is a challenge or other voter irregularity on election day we must stop what we are doing (checking in our lined-up voters and assigning them to voting booths), calm down the affected voter to prevent an altercation, call the county for guidance, locate the provisional ballots, help the voter fill it out, and attend to the secure custody of the completed provisional ballot.
Polling places are almost always understaffed as it is. Even one challenge-- targeted at the very busy beginning or ending of election day-- could slow things down tremendously and force people at the back of the line to give up and go home.
That the GOP would come up with this is outrageous. Mr. "I don't know how many houses I have" should think about how shameful this is.
Posted by: Katie O in Houston, TX | Sep 16, 2008 4:21:10 PM
actually, even if your home is foreclosed on, and sold at auction, the new owner can then rent the home back to you. Unfortunately most of these homes are not selling at auction and end up bank owned properties and empty, as the bank has no interest in renting such properties.
Posted by: Jason | Sep 16, 2008 4:24:05 PM
Still another attempt at pro-Democratic reporting from the media,
But still not one word regarding Obama attempting to manipulate U.S. Troop withdrawals from Iraq........
Shame, shame.................
Posted by: SandyB | Sep 16, 2008 4:24:37 PM
And how is this any different than the ploys used by Obama during his previous runs for office in Illinois?
Didn't he have all of his competition removed from the ballot by technicalities?????
Posted by: SandyB | Sep 16, 2008 4:26:58 PM
God every year the same thing from Rep's trying to stop people from voting. Why do people vote Rep is beyond me.
Posted by: Mrs Ethel | Sep 16, 2008 4:38:30 PM
"Republicans sued in Pennsylvania to keep Bob Barr off the ballots there. Republicans have become very sleazy to preserve power."
Funny - I seem to recall that is how St. Barack got started in politics in Illinois... suing to remove his opponents off the ballot so he ran unopposed.
Hypocritical are we?
Posted by: John | Sep 16, 2008 4:41:27 PM
More Repukan smear? Please.
Detroit wants it's jobs back.
Maybe McShame thinks it's okay to keep smearing nonsense that even Karl Rove is saying has crossed the line, and is outright lies, and sleaze.
Geez, the king of crap holding his nose around the MCShame camPAIN.
Foreclosures take months.
People can still try to save their home right uup until the day it goes on public auction at noon.
Sheeple shouldn't vote.
Posted by: pamela | Sep 16, 2008 4:41:45 PM
1republicanred,
The Dems have the worst record for "srtealing elections"????
DOES 2000 MEAN ANYTHUING TO YOU?
You know, when the MAJORITY of the American public voted for Al Gore , but Bush Senior's Supreme Court buddies said Little George could be President.
Get you facts straight!
Posted by: No More GOP | Sep 16, 2008 4:46:06 PM
Many "properties" foreclosed upon are not single family dwellings. Many apartment complexes, large and small, have also entered foreclosure.
Generally, the bank and the new ownwers of the complex seek renter continuity--renters are NOT put out of a complex simply because it has changed hands.
Far from it.
Posted by: Katie O in Houston, TX | Sep 16, 2008 4:51:51 PM
If vote to Obama will help to prevent foreclosure, then, I need to put my home on foreclosure too. I don't have to work hard hard to earn money to pay for mortgage.
Posted by: Tim | Sep 16, 2008 5:05:06 PM
Post a comment



