Now that the party nominating conventions have passed and the presidential race has reached its final leg, voter suppression efforts are shifting into high gear around the country. As each campaign assembles an army of lawyers to protect their interests leading to and on election day, state and local partisans are engaging in a wide variety of tactics to prevent their opponents' supporters from casting a ballot. Once again these underhanded tactics, which we've highlighted before, are predominantly coming from right wing operatives, and the targets are overwhelmingly groups that tend to vote for progressive candidates. Since the beginning of this month the following voters suppression campaigns have been reported:
Michigan - Lose Your Home, Lose Your Vote - Macomb County Michigan Republican Chairman Planned to Cage Foreclosure Victims:
Without a doubt the most disturbing suppression tactic that has been reported in the last couple of weeks was the claim of the Republican Chairman of Macomb County, Michigan that the party planned to use lists of foreclosure notices to challenge the eligibility of voters at the polls. The lists were to be used as evidence that voters no longer resided at the address where they are registered to vote. The Democratic Party and voting rights advocates immediately expressed outrage over the tactic, which
Project Vote has noted is a violation of both Michigan and federal law.
As the story quickly gained wide attention, the local and state GOP furiously denied that they had ever made such plans and have threatened to sue the original independent media website that broke the story. However, the Democratic National Committee, the Obama campaign and several voters have filed for an injunction to prevent the practice.
Florida - "No Match, No Vote" Registration Rule to be Enforced:
Florida announced on September 8th that they would enforce the state's controversial "no match, no vote" voter registration policy. "No match, no vote" rejects the voter registration application of any person whose personal information does not match with that in a government database. It results in the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters and predominantly affects women and Hispanics. The policy had been put on hold due to a challenge in federal court by voting rights advocates and voters. With an initial victory having been reversed on appeal, the state is beginning enforcement for the remainder of the registration period.
Wisconsin - AG Sues to Force Voter Registration Purge:
Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, who serves as co-chair of the McCain campaign in that state, has sued the Government Accountability Board (GAB), a non-partisan government agency that oversees elections. Attorney General Van Hollen is demanding that the board retroactively run a database match (a la Florida) on every voter registered since January 2006. The GAB "believes it would be counter-productive to rush this effort and to create a significant risk, at best of unnecessary hardship and confusion at the polls, and at worst the disenfranchisement of Wisconsin citizens with a clear and legitimate right to vote."
Ironically, the voter purge the Attorney General is advocating would be illegal in most other states because it violates the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). However, Wisconsin is exempt because they have election day voter registration (EDR) and, therefore, challenged voters should be able to correct any registration problems at the polls. Given this, it is clear the intention of the voter purge is not to merely make sure voter information is correct. In light of this, the Wisconsin Democratic Party has filed a countersuit claiming that the Attorney General is engaged in voter suppression.
