Obama defends the right to vote

newmachineoverlord

Senior member
Jan 22, 2006
484
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This is based on a false rumor and has been discredited in other threads

Senior Anandtech Moderator
Common Courtesy

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The main reason I favored Hilary in the primary was that her website made it clear that she understood the assault on voting rights that the republicans have been waging. She had a plan and set of policy ideas to attack that problem. Obama has now addressed that concern and shown not only that he understands the problem but is willing to do something about it. I am now no longer disappointed that Hilary lost the primary.

Full text below:

Obama campaign files suit over ?voter-foreclosure? plans
By Ed Brayton 9/16/08 12:46 PM

The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee have filed a lawsuit in federal court in Michigan over the Michigan GOP?s plan to use foreclosure lists to challenge voters at the polls, as first reported by the Michigan Messenger.

Bob Bauer, general counsel for the Obama campaign, and Mark Brewer, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, announced the lawsuit in a conference call with reporters this afternoon. It was filed on behalf of the campaign, the party and three Michigan residents who have had their houses foreclosed upon in recent months.

Bauer called the GOP plan to use foreclosure lists ?a new and especially repellent version of caging.? Caging is a technique of challenging voters where they take lists of addresses, mail to them with a ?do not forward? marking and if for whatever reason those mailings are returned, they use this as a basis for claiming that the voter no longer lives at the address at which they are registered.

Bauer noted that using foreclosure lists to challenge a voter?s address is ?false and illegal? for several reasons. First, because getting a foreclosure notice is not evidence that the person?s address has changed. In Michigan, homeowners have the opportunity to redeem the foreclosure even after a sheriff?s sale has occurred, which means they can stay in the home for many months after a foreclosure notice has been sent. Second, because under Michigan law a person can vote at their old precinct if they lost their home within 60 days of the election.

Brewer noted that in July alone 11,000 Michigan residents received foreclosure notices. The McCain campaign, he argued, ?wants to add insult to injury? by denying those residents their right to vote. ?The right to vote is one of our most fundamental rights as Americans,? said Brewer, ?To try to strip our fellow citizens of their right to vote is un-American and unconscionable.?

Last week, James Carabelli, chairman of the Macomb County GOP, told the Messenger?s Eartha Melzer in a phone interview: ?We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren?t voting from those addresses.? The Michigan Republican Party has denied that Carabelli made the statements that the Michigan Messenger reported, but Bauer said that the complaint includes quotes from Republican operatives in Ohio and other states saying much the same thing Carabelli said and defending the legitimacy of using foreclosure lists and voter caging techniques.

Bauer also said that they expect that the lawsuit will allow them to subpoena emails and memos from the state and local GOP officials that will prove that they had obtained foreclosure lists and were planning to use them for this purpose.

http://www.michiganmessenger.c...over-foreclosure-lists

edit: Here are some more articles about the assault on the right to vote as long as we're on the subject.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/158392
http://www.michiganmessenger.c...your-vote#dsq-post-add
http://www.gregpalast.com/bill...troduced-in-us-senate/
http://truthaboutfraud.org/
 

MadRat

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
11,910
239
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Definitely an insult to injury. Last time I bought a house and moved I didn't bother to change my voter registration until after the election. Technically I could have been denied the right to vote because of it, but since I was Republican in a state that votes Republican there was never an issue. People shouldn't be harassed for simply changing addresses like this.
 

dphantom

Diamond Member
Jan 14, 2005
4,763
326
126
You're a day late and a dollar short. Old news from yesterday. The story is false and is being spread by your leftist blogs. There is no such plan in Michigan.
 

Corbett

Diamond Member
Jun 8, 2005
3,074
0
76
Funny, the Obama campaign obviously needs to catch up because this story has been proven to be false. The last thread about this was locked because the entire premise if a lie.

Not a single shred of evidence other than what the "Michigan Messenger" says was told to them by the Republican they interviewed has been produced to substantiate these claims, yet, it doesn't surprise me that the Obama campaign is taking it anyways and running with it.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=52&threadid=2228264

http://www.migop.org/news.asp?artid=170

Sep 16, 2008
Macomb County GOP Chairman Says Liberal Blog Libeled Him

SHELBY TWP., Mich. ? Macomb County Republican Party Chairman James Carabelli said a liberal blogger libeled him last week, fabricating a quote attributed to him that has burned its way across the Internet and the mainstream media, adding he will take legal action Wednesday to clear his name.

?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.?
Last week, the MichiganMessenger.com, a liberal blog funded by the Center for Independent Media, a known front group for liberal billionaire George Soros, published an online story claiming Carabelli said the Macomb County Republican Party planned to use lists of foreclosed homes to challenge voters on Election Day. Immediately after the story was published online, Carabelli and Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saulius ?Saul? Anuzis condemned the story as false. On Friday, Carabelli demanded the Michigan Messenger retract the story. The Michigan Messenger has yet to retract the story or provide proof that the quote attributed to Carabelli is accurate.
?What we have here is a liberal blog funded by a liberal billionaire pushing a fabricated story that supports a liberal agenda,? Anuzis said. ?Never in my 30 years in politics have I seen the mainstream media pick up such a completely false and utterly ludicrous story as this one and run with it with such glee. It is high-time we hold these liberal blogs to the same ethical and legal standards that we do for newspapers, broadcast news, and other legitimate media outlets.?

http://www.migop.org/news.asp?artid=168
Sep 12, 2008
MI GOP: Foreclosure Story False

LANSING, Mich. - The chairmen of the Michigan Republican Party and the Republican Party of Macomb County today denounced a story on a liberal blog, claiming Republicans would use home foreclosure lists to disqualify voters, as false, based on comments fabricated by a writer.

?This story is not true, and I never said those things,? said Macomb County Republican Party Chairman James Carabelli. ?The writer from the blog who spoke to me fabricated comments attributed to me. I did not say that, and I demand a retraction.?

The MichiganMessenger.com, a Left-leaning blog run by the Center for Independent Media, a known front organization for liberal billionaire George Soros, published a story claiming that Republicans in Michigan planned to use lists of foreclosed homes to weed out unqualified voters on Election Day. MichiganMessenger.com cited no evidence for this claim other than the fabricated quote attributed to Carabelli.

?There is no truth to this story. It?s a complete fabrication,? said Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saulius ?Saul? Anuzis. ?There has never been a plan to use foreclosure lists to challenge voters. There is no such plan, and there never will be such a plan. Period.?

Anuzis said it is no coincidence that as the race for the White House tightens, nationally and in Michigan, the Obama campaign and its supporters have resorted to manufacturing news. He added that this ploy is eerily similar to efforts by the Kerry-Edwards ticket in 2004, when it encouraged supporters to fabricate stories about voter intimidation to influence media coverage of the race.

According to a Kerry-Edwards ?Colorado Election Day Manual,? distributed to Democratic poll challengers in 2004, it directs them to make up charges of voter intimidation: ?If no signs of intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a ?pre-emptive strike? ... place stories in which minority leadership express concern about the threat of intimidation tactics.? (Kerry-Edwards/DNC ?Colorado Election Day Manual,? pg. 54, attached.)

?This is a well-worn tactic by the Democrats, and the Left, to cry ?wolf? to draw attention away from the election fraud they commit at every election,? Anuzis said. ?We still have the FBI holding ballots that Democrats stuffed after the polls closed in a recent election, and in 2004, at least 46 deceased voters managed to rise from the grave and vote in heavy Democrat-leaning precincts. That?s the kind of ballot integrity Democrats favor in Michigan.?