Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. |
The Obama campaign is accusing Republicans of trying to disenfranchise black voters in Detroit and other cities by using home foreclosure lists to turn them away from polls on Election Day.
The charges were initially raised by Democrat Rep. Maxine Waters of the Congressional Black Caucus, prompting Obama and the Democratic National Committee to sue the Michigan GOP.
The federal suit, which campaign lawyers acknowledge is based solely on unconfirmed reports and rumors, also alleges that Ohio Republicans and the Republican National Committee also have schemed to challenge voters who have lost their homes in the battleground state.
Republican officials in both states denied the allegations.
"We're not going to do that," said Michigan Republican Party spokesman Bill Nowling, "and we never talked about doing that."
Last month, Waters, D-Watts – who fanned the flames of the deadly Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, earning her the nickname "Kerosene Maxine" – demanded the FBI investigate the rumors.
"I'm taking the opportunity to sound the alarm so that we are not talking about it after the election and investigating (then)," Waters told FBI Director Robert Mueller in a House Judiciary Committee hearing. "This can be stopped now."
Convinced an actual conspiracy is under way, Waters said, "It's a violation of the Voting Rights Act, and we shouldn't linger with this.
"We've got an election coming up," she added. "And we don't want to see these challenges based on foreclosures, okay?"
Waters helped fuel the 1992 riots in her South Central district of Los Angeles by shouting, "No justice, no peace," along with the rioters, whose murderous behavior she said she found "somewhat understandable."
"I'm just as angry as they are," she said at the time.
James Carville and other Democrat activists have already hinted at similar riots breaking out in heavily black cities in the event Obama, the first African-American presidential nominee, loses the election.
Senior NAACP official Hilary Shelton said blacks would get angry if they felt disenfranchised because of voting irregularities.
"On Election Day," she said, "you may have some tempers flare."
While Shelton said police should prepare to control crowds, she warned against too big a police presence near polls, which she said could intimidate first-time minority voters.
In anticipation of possible unrest, police in Detroit, Chicago, Oakland and Philadelphia are beefing up their ranks for Election Day. Police based the need for enhanced patrols in part on the Internet rumors alleging disenfranchisement.
Obama's campaign also has gone to federal court asking for restraining orders to keep Republicans from allegedly using foreclosure lists to disqualify voters in Michigan and elsewhere.
The mainstream media have bruited about the rumors, which started on a leftwing blog in Michigan.
"Lost your house to foreclosure?" a CNN report asked. "Democrats in Michigan say beware: Republicans want to make sure you lose your vote, too."
Rehashing unconfirmed reports, CNN suggested Republicans are arming election officials with lists of foreclosed homes to make sure "people kicked out of their homes" aren't voting from those addresses.
"Democrats fear Republicans on Election Day will challenge voters whose addresses don't match where they live now – like people who had been kicked out of their homes due to foreclosure," CNN said.
The network then showed a map of more than 5,000 dots denoting foreclosed homes in one Detroit county alone, noting that Democrats believe they are all likely Obama voters.
But election officials there say registered voters who left their foreclosed home for a different address in the same precinct are still eligible to vote. And officials deny the distribution of any foreclosure lists.
A voter registration group tied to Obama is under investigation by the FBI and election agencies in several states. ACORN, an inner-city charity, is accused of fraudulently registering tens of thousands of voters in states where no ID is required.
Slightly more than half of states (see table below) do not require voters to show a drivers license or other proof of residence to vote. Fully 26 states do not ask for documentation to match names or signatures to voter registration cards.
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NO ID? NO PROBLEM
States where ID is not required to vote
California
District of Columbia
Idaho
Illinois
Iowa
Kansas
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Utah
Vermont
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Source: National Conference of State Legislatures
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