House Judiciary Committee asks attorney general for investigation of MI GOP vote suppression

Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.)

On Friday the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee called on U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to launch a full-scale investigation into reports — first published here — that Michigan Republicans plan to use home foreclosure lists to challenge voters on Election Day. The committee also scheduled a hearing on the matter for Wednesday.

In a letter to Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, released simultaneously, Democratic Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Detroit, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, asked McCain to denounce any efforts by the Republican Party to engage in voter suppression, including challenges based on a voter’s home foreclosure status. Conyers requested that McCain direct his supporters to refrain from using that tactic.

“At a time when Americans are losing their homes at record numbers, it is difficult to imagine that anyone would attempt to capitalize on such misfortune for political gain,” Conyers wrote. “Furthermore, a rejection of this strategy would be consistent with your recent commitment to a “fair and transparent election.”

Last week the McCain campaign announced that it had formed an Honest and Open Election Committee,“with a mission to ensure that every qualified citizen has the opportunity to vote in a fair and transparent manner.” In a press release that did not include contact information, the McCain campaign Web site announced on Sept. 15, “The committee will work with state and local election officials to anticipate, and where possible resolve in advance, problems likely to arise on Election Day.”

Calls by Michigan Messenger to the McCain campaign/Honest and Open Election Committee were not returned.

Republicans have denied that they will use foreclosure lists to challenge voters and that they have ever violated campaign law though Eric Doster, attorney for the Michigan GOP did acknowledge the use of challenge lists based on returned mail. Democrats have filed suit in federal court, asking for an injunction against challenges based on foreclosure, charging that such challenges could lead to many harms including long lines at the polls.

In his letter to McCain, Conyers noted that when Congress reauthorized the Voting Rights Act in 2006, Democrats and Republicans agreed that discriminatory voter suppression tactics had not been completely eradicated and that protections against such tactics were still necessary.

Plans by the Macomb County Republican Party to use foreclosure lists to challenge voters should be investigated as a possible violation of the Voting Rights Act, the Judiciary Committee told Mukasey, because this practice would disproportionately affect African-Americans, who are overwhelmingly Democratic voters.

As a result of the subprime mortgage crisis, an estimated 2.5 million homes will face foreclosure this year, Conyers wrote, and the committee cited a report by the Center for Responsible Lending, which found that African-American borrowers will experience foreclosure at more than twice the rate of white borrowers.

“Certainly there can be no denying the kind of negative impact that challenges based on home foreclosure status can have on historically disenfranchised voting populations who have traditionally been targeted by predatory practices,” Conyers wrote. “A person’s ability to exercise his or her right to vote should not be contingent on financial circumstances.”

Conyers and the committee called on authorities to recall the history of GOP vote suppression:

Notably, in 1981 a federal court condemned the Republican National Committee (RNC) for using vote caging tactics similar to the foreclosure list plan. Since the federal court’s decision in 1981 in New Jersey, the RNC has been under a federal consent decree to refrain from engaging in this practice. It is important to note that the Department, under President George H.W. Bush filed suit in 1990 to stop a vote caging effort by those associated with Senator Jesse Helms’ re-election campaign.

Conyers asked McCain and Mukasey to respond to the concerns about vote suppression.

On Wednesday the committee will hold a hearing on federal and state preparations for the November election. Jonathan Godfrey, spokesman for Conyers’ office, told Michigan Messenger that members of the Department of Justice’s Voting Rights Division are expected to attend.