The title to this article is Lose Your House, Lose Your Vote.
I've been on the hunt for issues of voter suppression underway by the GOP and it appears I've found it: in the swing state of Michigan.
It appears that African-American voters who have foreclosures on their homes underway and if they are registered to vote using those addresses, could have their voter eligibility challenged per the State of Michigan's challenge process. This all appears engineered by the state's GOP.
The goal of voter suppression is not always to deny people to vote. It is also a tool to create long lines and discourage people eager to vote with the delays.
The Macomb County party’s plans to challenge voters who have defaulted on their house payments is likely to disproportionately affect African-Americans who are overwhelmingly Democratic voters. More than 60 percent of all sub-prime loans — the most likely kind of loan to go into default — were made to African-Americans in Michigan, according to a report issued last year by the state’s Department of Labor and Economic Growth.
I'm not good at writing diaries, which is why I haven't done so before but Michigan is my second home state. My father and uncles grew up in Detroit; my grandfather was able to own a home and support his family. I would visit Kronk and watch the boxers spar as a kid and I attended school at U of D. My cousin attended Obama's rally in Farmington Hills the other night. Detroit and Michigan are dear to me.
The State of Michigan's challenge process can be found here.
Of note:
When is it permissible for a challenger to challenge a voter?
• A challenger has the right to challenge a voter if the challenger has good reason to believe that a person who offers to vote 1) is not a true resident of the city or township 2) has not yet attained 18 years of age 3) is not a United States citizen or 4) did not register to vote on or before the "close of registration" for the election at hand.
{Emphasis mine}.
I do hope someone who can do this story justice on DKos picks this up and runs with it. There are more links within the initial story.
The goal of this diary is to bring attention to this issue. If this has been diaried elsewhere, I will delete.