I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]
An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.
Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.
Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.
ACORN today urged officials in all states to protect the voting rights of people who fear their eligibility will be challenged because their homes are in foreclosure.
On Monday in Michigan, Democrats and Republicans settled a federal lawsuit about foreclosure-based challenges with an agreement not to use foreclosure status to challenge voter eligibility.
Republican National Committee spokesman Danny Diaz told Michigan Messenger that the RNC would not use foreclosure lists to challenge voters.
But ACORN representatives said today that further action is necessary because it is unclear whether the Michigan settlement would block the use of foreclosure lists in other states.
For example, earlier this month the Beacon Online News reported that Elections Supervisor Ann McFall, a Republican from Volusia County Florida, told a local Chamber of Commerce group, “One Party, that we know of, is going to challenge every voter that’s being foreclosed on.”
“ACORN calls on Gov. Crist, who has been a supporter of voting rights, and the Florida GOP and Volusia County GOP to immediately denounce this tactic and commit to a legally enforceable agreement prohibiting the Republican Party from using foreclosure lists to challenge voters,” Austin King, national director of the ACORN Financial Justice Center, told Michigan Messenger.
King pointed out that the chairman of the GOP in Marion County, Ind., which includes Indianapolis, said earlier this month that foreclosure-based challenges had not been ruled out.
“We might end up challenging on that,” Marion County GOP Chairman Tom John told the Indianapolis Star. “It’s entirely possible. I think it would be a solid basis for asking someone to vote provisionally.”
Republican Party officials in Minnesota and New Mexico said they will not use home foreclosure lists to challenge voters.
In a report released this morning (“Adding Insult to Injury (pdf)”), the group noted that in six states — Florida, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio and Wisconsin — the number of people who could be disenfranchised if blocked from voting due to home foreclosure is greater than the margin of victory in the 2004 election.
The report went on to recommend:
“Election officials at all levels should take proactive measures to ensure that civil rights are upheld and that foreclosure victims feel secure that their votes will be counted. State election officials and attorneys general should follow the lead the Maryland and Ohio Attorneys General to disallow voter challenges based on foreclosure listings since they are unreliable to prove residency.”
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