Coming soon to a foreclosure epicenter near you?
The chairman of the Republican Party in Macomb County Michigan, a key swing county in a key swing state, is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes to block people from voting in the upcoming election as part of the state GOP’s effort to challenge some voters on Election Day.
“We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses,†party chairman James Carabelli told Michigan Messenger in a telephone interview earlier this week. He said the local party wanted to make sure that proper electoral procedures were followed…
Carabelli is not the only Republican Party official to suggest the targeting of foreclosed voters. In Ohio, Doug Preisse, director of elections in Franklin County (around the city of Columbus) and the chair of the local GOP, told The Columbus Dispatch that he has not ruled out challenging voters before the election due to foreclosure-related address issues.
What’s going to happen if Republicans force election judges (and waiting voters) to deal with endless challenges in polling places in Cleveland Ward 12, Ward 2, Ward 3, Ward 9, Ward 14, Ward 17….?
Seems like maybe we’re going to find out.
P.S. Since November 1, 2006 (i.e. since the last big general election) we’ve had sheriff’s sales of 15,981 properties in Cuyahoga County. 8,571 of these properties are in the city of Cleveland. At least a quarter of these properties are multi-unit, and most would have been occupied two years ago. So it’s a pretty fair guess that 18,000-20,000 county households have been displaced by foreclosures since Election Day 2006 — at least 10,000 households in the city.
It’s anybody’s guess how many of these households included two or more adults, and how many of these adults are registered voters.
The Cuyahoga County voting jurisdictions with the biggest concentrations of sheriff’s sales since Election Day 2006 are:
Cleveland wards:
- Ward 12 (703 sheriff’s sales)
- Ward 2 (692)
- Ward 3 (645)
- Ward 1 (608)
- Ward 10 (551)
- Ward 11 (529)
- Ward 8 (470)
- Ward 4 (438)
- Ward 9 (420)
Other cities:
- Euclid (762)
- Maple Heights (747)
- Cleveland Heights (735)
- East Cleveland (669)
- Garfield Heights (528)
- Parma (445)
(All sheriff’s sale numbers are from NEOCANDO.)
September 11th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
i wonder how the mortgage brokers and lenders will be voting. it would be nice James Carabelli put his energy into straightening out the paper work enough for all these empty houses and apartment buildings to be sold or rented out.