Posted on September - 29 - 2010
A foreclosure could disenfranchise
With America’s midterm elections set for 2 November 2010, things are getting hotter for election officials in every State. This time they are sweating about a new problem – the increasing number of address errors on voter lists caused by foreclosure-related moves. It seems that renewing a County registration is the last thing on the minds of troubled borrowers or renters. Voting eligibility ties back to a home address, and the clock is ticking.
American law requires voters to register in the County in which they live. Some foreclosure victims move frequently as they chase jobs and try to survive. There is also confusion as to whether homeownership affects things, or does not.
“Unfortunately, voting is probably not the No. 1 thing that’s on their mind right now,” said President of Fair Elections Legal Network Robert M. Brandon following his release of a report summarizing the impact of foreclosures and how to avoid disenfranchisement. In 2008, the leading parties became embroiled in a public spat concerning the morality of chasing down missing voters using foreclosure lists.
The rules for definition of domicile are different in almost every State. Some tolerate an old address until a new one is noted. Some allow re-registration on the day before an election, while others close the books 30 days before. In these States, voters have just today and tomorrow to decide. Very few States bend their rules for voters who move States at the last minute.
“People move very frequently, and we have an outdated system that relies on individual voters to notify election officials every time they do,” Wendy Weiser (who directs the voting rights and elections project at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law) remarked. “Even in states where people are relatively well protected, the key is whether they know their rights. This is just not an issue that has been well publicized.” Robert Brandon added.
Thus far into the current election cycle, voters have not formed long queues at County Offices. Some officials are planning an advertising plan – in other States they appear to have left this too late. I personally find this situation worrisome for our democracy. The race this time is going to be tight with many Americans undecided, and many more apparently facing administrative disenfranchisement.
Has our nation become so slack, so superciliously over-confident that we no longer need the votes of everybody? Are the victims of the foreclosure blight that stalks our land not deserving of more than this? It would have been so easy to include a memo about voter registration in a notice of foreclosure pack.
Find foreclosed properties at .
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