Reply #7: Nope...you are incorrect. I wish you weren't. [View All]

Read this and weep...what you described is the way it should be, but it's not. Land is a piece of work. It is very unfortunate that Sabaugh did not get elected. With the foreclosure rate in Michigan, it could get very ugly on election day. How many people will remember to update their voter registration info? How many people will not have a permanent address to register? They are using the foreclosure lists to "check up" on voters. Send a "do not forward" mailing. If it gets returned to the SOS, you may be removed from the list. They will not pursue it, or attempt to verify you as a legitimate voter.

Everyone needs to check their voter registration now, and again before October 6.

Use this list for links to check, and pass the info along.
Michigan:
https://services2.sos.state.mi.us/mivote/

Links for other states:

http://www.votersunite.org/info/RegInfo.asp

Three States Accused of Illegally Purging Voter Lists
By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet
Posted on July 25, 2008, Printed on August 4, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/92695/
Election officials in a handful of states appear to be ignoring the federal law dictating the way registered voters may be purged from voter rolls, civil rights attorneys say.

National voting rights groups have contacted officials in Kansas, Michigan and Louisiana in recent weeks because those states appear to be purging registered voters after election officials found duplicate names and birthdays of people on their voter lists and in out-of-state databases, such as driver's license records.

big snip...

Michigan's Secretive Approach

In Michigan, the issues are more complex. Advancement Project's Heard said there has been an overall lack of "transparency" regarding several aspects of the state's voter purge process. In 2006, he said, Michigan election officials did a statewide mailing to all voters that did not mention the mailing would be used to verify voter registration information. Still, Heard said the returned postcards were used to remove 230,000 registered voters from voter rolls within 90 days of that year's general election, which also violates the NVRA, he said.

Jan BenDor, statewide coordinator for the Michigan Election Defense Alliance, a local voting rights group, said state officials cited an April 2007 letter from the Department of Justice pressuring the state to do more to clean up its voter roll for the statewide mailing and August 2006 purge. Ten states received those letters, which critics said was a political move because the claims of sloppy voter rolls was based on outdated data, notably U.S. Census population estimates.

Since the 2006 purge, Michigan has used driver's license databases from other states to identify another 280,000 names as apparent duplicate voter registrations, Heard said. This month, staffers for Michigan Secretary of State Land, a Republican, canceled a meeting with Heard and Michigan activists to discuss purge issues.

"We have been trying to get a meeting with election officials to talk about the issues and get their explanation," Heard said. "It's hard to say what happened with the 280,000 supposed out-of-state movers, since we can't get the info from the state."

Land's spokeswoman, Chesney, did not respond to requests to comment. However, newspapers in Michigan have quoted Chesney as saying the meeting was canceled when an information session appeared to be a precursor to litigation. Heard said Advancement Project has not ruled out filing a lawsuit.

"We have to evaluate all of our options," he said. "We are hoping the secretary of state's staff will sit down and talk about it."




http://www.alternet.org/democracy/92695/three_states_accused_of_illegally_purging_voter_lists_/