Recently there have been numerous efforts by the GOP to disqualify/confuse/delay voters in many states, particularly swing states and focusing on areas known to vote heavily democratic. Here is a new one to add to the list. The McCain campaign co-Chair in Wisconsin, WI Attorney General JB Van Hollen, has filed a suit to go back and cross-check all voters registered since Jan 1, 2006 in the county that includes Madison. There is an article about it here http://www.madison.com/tct/news/304606. It would be one thing if this was requested a few months ago but to have it happen now will create a great deal of confusion amongst voters and delays at the polls. There is also a comment by a WI resident mentioning mail he and his wife received asking for them to verify their birth date for voter registration rolls even though they’ve been registered for 25 years and lived in the same place for 15. That could be a separate caging effort which is also taking place in many states.
Caging is when you send a first class mailer to residents requesting return to sender. Recipients of those that get returned for any reason are added to a list and those voters are challenged at the polls to prove their address. This dissuades voters and backs up lines. It has been done increasingly in recent elections by Republicans. It’s how close elections are stolen. There is a massive effort going on in Ohio that looks like caging:
http://www.truthout.org/article/nearly-600000-voters-subject-possible-caging-ohio.
In Michigan a GOP member admitted to gathering lists of people foreclosed upon to challenge them at the polls, even though it can take months to actually move after foreclosure and it may never go through. Even if people in MI move after being foreclosed upon they can still vote for 60 days at their old precinct. But all those people will be challenged at the polls by the GOP. The efforts are targeted at areas that are known to vote heavily Democratic like minority neighborhoods. So if you’ve lost your home you may loose your vote too. http://www.michiganmessenger.com/4076/lose-your-house-lose-your-vote
In Virginia the county that contains Virginia Tech has erroneously warned students that if they register to vote at their current residences they may be denied their benefits:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/09/03/voting
The McCain camp is sending out intentionally confusing absentee ballot request forms in several states, not just Ohio. The forms are intentionally confusing and in some cases the return address is incorrect. It seems the intent is to get the recipients to cast their votes such that they can be invalidated by sending them off to the wrong district or even the wrong state. This is now happening in 11 states http://blackboxvoting.com/s9/index.php?/archives/280-McCains-Absentee-Ballot-Mailer-Fiasco-Spreads-Could-Disqualify-Some-Voters.html
People must be aware that these things are taking place.
