Subject: [big campaign] our story triggers Obama lawsuit
From: "David S. Bennahum" <[email-masked]>
To: Big Campaign <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:32:03 -0400
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

...and I might add, the GOP is now threatening to sue *us* for running  
it...

The GOP threat of a lawsuit against us: http://migop.org/news.asp?artid=170

Our story leads to this Obama lawsuit against the MI GOP:

http://www.michiganmessenger.com/4463/obama-campaign-files-suit-over-foreclosure-lists

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.

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