A few weeks ago I heard that Michigan Republicans were going to have officials at polling places to make sure that anyone who is facing (or already experienced) foreclosure didn’t try to use their current (or old) address to vote. According to today’s The New York Times this is not is not an isolated incident. In fact, this is an issue in all the other so-called swing states too like Ohio, Florida and Colorado. But I am sure that it won’t stop there.

Why should this matter to you? Because overwhelmingly it has been our people who have been victimized by this sub-prime mortgage mess. (And sisters who have been breadwinners and head many single parent households are definitely being adversely effected.)  Now as a result of many of us believing the claims of unscrupulous lenders, or not realizing the impact of home equity loans, one in ten African American households may be affected by foreclosure. That means that those folks who are registered at those addresses may experience attempts to block them from voting through harassment or intimidation. 

I hate to be a conspiracy theorist but now that Obama is back on top in the polls, don’t you find it strange that this issue is starting to crop up? Sure, this has happened before. Remember when the government had to deal with all those displaced “refugees” who wanted to vote after they were forced out of New Orleans in the wake and aftermath of Hurricane Katrina? At least then there was a concerted effort to offer absentee ballots and satellite voting locations for the one million people effected. Right now, no such plan to help those in foreclosure—or who are now homeless as a result— with this particular issue.

Anyway, Obama’s camp has filed a lawsuit in Michigan to thwart the Republican’s efforts but now that this strategy seems to be spreading to other states we need to be aware of it. Sort of takes me back to stories I heard about our efforts to earn the right to vote in the South when fear and intimidation were the order of the day. Let’s not let someone with a list and clipboard keep our people from casting their vote. Now more than ever we need to make every vote count.