Voting

WI Attorney General Battles State Over Voter Registration Checks

Kate Klonick | September 23, 2008, 5:20PM

As the presidential election nears, and Wisconsin proves itself to once again be a battleground state, J.B. Van Hollen, the state attorney general and co-chair of the Wisconsin McCain campaign, is raising the specter of voting fraud.

Van Hollen filed suit earlier this month, against the state Government Accountability Board (GAB) which oversees elections in Wisconsin, demanding that they verify all of the voter registrations made since January 2006 against a new state database created under the federal Help America Vote Act (HAVA) -- a Herculean task that the board had decided to forgo with just six weeks to go until the election.

The GAB claims to be in full compliance with HAVA, stating that retro-active voter registration checks through the database are not mandated by federal law.

The database compares registration data with drivers license records. It just got up and running in Wisconsin a few weeks ago, but the program seems to still be working out the kinks -- one of the reasons the GAB is hesitant to hold the database accountable for validating registrations.

"In its deliberations, the Board was concerned about preliminary data that
showed more than a fifth of voters' data mismatched due to variations in names,
differing data entry standards, or typographical errors," a GAB press release responding to Van Hollen's suit said. "A check conducted of GAB members' data resulted in four of six Board members' information mis-matching."

The result, state Democrats say, would be widespread disenfranchisement and suppressed voter turnout. They claim Van Hollen's demands for database checking are motivated by his role in the McCain campaign, an allegation Van Hollen has denied.

"There was no discussion with anybody involved in leadership with the Republican Party (or the McCain campaign) about this lawsuit before it was brought," Van Hollen said last Thursday.

But yesterday, the Wisconsin Republican Party chairman came forward to say he had multiple conversations with Van Hollen's deputy attorney general, Ray Taffora, specifically discussing the handling of the lawsuit, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. The Friday before, another Department of Justice attorney in the lawsuit admitted meeting with Republican Party representatives in the week before the suit was filed.

The Dane County Court will hear motions for the case tomorrow, including a motion to disqualify Van Hollen. The attorney for the GAB argues that because Van Hollen represents the state, and the GAB is a state entity, Van Hollen cannot sue a party he represents. Both the Democratic and Republican parties of Wisconsin have filed motions to intervene in the lawsuit.

House Judiciary

Conyers Calls on McCain to Halt GOP Voter Suppression Efforts

Kate Klonick | September 19, 2008, 2:56PM

In reaction to recent claims that the GOP is attempting to block voters in Michigan whose homes have been foreclosed on, one of the state's representatives is speaking out and demanding action from Republicans.

Rep. John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, called on Sen. John McCain to "step forward now and halt the Republican Party's efforts to profit politically from the economic misery of others."

"The Republican Party has had a long record of blocking eligible voters from voting," Conyers wrote. "In the past two Presidential elections, the country witnessed appalling efforts to limit voter participation in Ohio, Florida and throughout the country. It is beyond disgraceful that the Republican Party now seems to be targeting those who are suffering the most. . . It should surprise no one that the people who gave us the worst economy since the Great Depression would now want to prevent those victimized by this economy from voting in the coming elections."

Separately, Conyers and 22 of his Democratic colleagues in the House, also joined Senate Democrats, who earlier this week demanded an investigation from the DOJ into what has become known as the "lose your house, lose your vote," after the title of the article in the Michigan Messenger which sparked awareness of the GOPs plan to challenge voters registered at addresses on foreclosure lists.

Voting

Senators Seek DOJ's Help in Preventing Disenfranchisement of Voters Losing Homes

Kate Klonick | September 16, 2008, 5:55PM

After reports that the Michigan Republican party planned to challenge voters whose homes had been foreclosed, thirteen senators have petitioned Attorney General Michael Mukasey to ensure that such voters would not be harassed or intimidated at their polling places.

"Foreclosures are devastating enough for affected families and neighborhoods without adding the outrage of disenfranchisement," wrote Sens. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Joseph Biden (D-DE), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Russell Feingold (D-WI), Richard Durbin (D-IL), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Barack Obama (D-IL), Carl Levin (D-MI), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

In their letter, the senators called the tactic "simply a new variant of the destructive practice of voter 'caging.'" Voter caging is a term used to describe discouraging eligible voters to vote.

"In the middle of the worst economy in recent memory, with so many Americans fighting to stay in their homes, these allegations suggest a mean-spirited and desperate attempt to suppress the vote," said Whitehouse, who has authored legislation on voter suppression.

Voting

MI Dems Fight Back Against GOP Attempts to Challenge Voters on Foreclosure Lists

Kate Klonick | September 16, 2008, 4:41PM

It's happened before, and it's threatening to happen again -- obstacles placed in the way of voters in low-income, highly Democratic areas.

The most recent charges come out of the swing county of Macomb in Michigan where late last week, the Michigan Messenger quoted the chairman of the Macomb County Republican Party, James Carabelli as stating that the party would be blocking voters who are registered at foreclosed addresses.

"We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren't voting from those addresses," Carabelli told the Messenger.

Michigan state voting laws allow "election challengers" to monitor the polls for the parties. If those challengers have "good reason to believe" that a person is ineligible -- such as not being a resident of the city or township -- they can lodge a challenge with the chairperson of the election precinct.

But according to voting rights experts, a foreclosure notice does not mean that a person is no longer a resident -- making it an inadequate basis for a challenge.

Just a few days after the article was published, Carabelli back-tracked on his statement, telling the Macomb Daily that the party has "no plans to do anything." He has now issued a full-throated denial, calling the original article "not true."

Today, Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Mark Brewer told the AP that he "simply [does] not believe [Carabelli's] denial. This fits the pattern we've seen here in Michigan."

And just in case, Obama's Presidential Campaign, the Democratic National Committee and a number of voters filed for an injunction today, in order to prevent any GOP efforts to disenfranchise voters whose homes have been foreclosed on.