Blogs Foreclosures
Can a person in foreclosure really lose the right to vote?
Wouldn’t that be against the constitution?
http://www.npr.org/blogs/newsandviews/2008/09/lose_your_home_lose_your_vote_1.html
A lot of people responding to this are missing a key point in the article the asker has linked to – people in foreclosure have not necessarily moved out of their houses! This means that people could be subjected to pointless investigation and harassment at the polling stations because their names are on a list, which won’t ultimately stop them from voting but which will slow everything down and create long lines at polling stations in poorer urban areas.
Constitutionality aside, many voters may get screwed out of voting indirectly because of this. Huge lines are most problematic for voters who are hourly workers, as they often have to vote early in the morning or not at all and may miss their opportunity to vote if the lines are ridiculously long, and hourly workers in urban areas are a key demographic for Democrats in this election.
Furthermore, whether or not vote suppression and/or vote intimidation changed the result of the 2000 and 2004 elections is anyone’s guess, but there is a wealth of evidence suggesting that it occurred, so warnings like this are not to be taken lightly.
See below for 2 different articles detailing alleged Republican efforts to suppress voting in less-affluent African American communities in Florida in 2004. Also, for a loooooong list of problems people have had voting (some allegedly malicious, some not), see the bottom site below. Unnecessarily long lines at urban polling stations in largely Democratic constituencies (e.g. parts of Columbus, Ohio 2004) shows up again and again – whether or not this is due to poor planning or deliberate vote suppression is a matter of opinion, I guess.
Collier Video Blog on Birmingham AL Foreclosure and Short Sale Homes
