Election Rights For Americans Facing Foreclosure

Election Rights

League of Women Voters - Voting in Your State

http://www.vote411.org/bystate.php

State-by-state info on:

Absentee Voting
Ballot Measures
Candidate Information
Early Voting
Election Dates
Eligibility Requirements
ID Requirements
Poll Workers
Polling Place Details
Provisional Voting
Resources and Links
State Contact Info
Voter Registration
Voting Machines

See Also: Poling Place Finder

http://www.vote411.org/pollingplacebystate.php

U.S. Election Assistance Commission - Voter Guide

http://www.eac.gov/voter

Good list of links to state-specific voting resources.

State Registration Deadlines: Complete voter registration info for each state, including links to each state's voter registration info.

Rock the Vote Election Center

http://www.rockthevote.com/electioncenter/

National Association of Secretaries of State - Voter Resources

http://nass.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=205

Sponsors of CanIVote.org. These are the guys who are responsible for running elections in each state. They offer direct links to each state's government voter info websites, run by, you guessed it, the Secretaries of State of the various states.

USA Today Blog

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/09/with-millions-o.html

Description:

Foreclosure crisis spawns rumors about voter challenges
With so many of the nation's houses in foreclosure, voting rights has become an issue in the run-up to Election Day.

"Many of these voters will be disqualified at the polls because, in the tumult of their foreclosure, they neglected to tell their election board of their new address. Some could be forced to vote with a provisional ballot or challenged by partisan poll watchers, a particular concern among Democrats who fear that poor voters will be singled out," The New York Times reports. "That could add confusion and stretch out lines that are already expected to be long because of unprecedented turnout."

Earlier this month, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission advised such voters to verify their registration -- or reregister, if necessary -- with their elections board before the local deadline, which could be as soon as Oct. 6.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler issued a written opinion in response to rumors that victims of foreclosure would be challenged at the polls in his state. "I ask that you instruct all state and local election officials make clear to voters that persons who lose their homes to foreclosure do not lose their right to vote," he writes to the head of the state's Board of Elections.

What are the rules in your state?

Posted by Mike Carney at 09:23 AM/ET, September 26, 2008 in Politics

Election Protection Training/
Pollworkers for Democracy

http://act.credoaction.com/

Useful downloadable PDF manuals that spell out voting rights in detail. Available for selected states.

Sign up to be a pollworker and recieve training to make sure voting rights are enforced properly in your neighborhood.

Worries About Voter Intimidation Run High

http://www.npr.org/

All Things Considered, October 6, 2008

States' Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal

nytimes.com - October 8, 2008

Colorado to Review How It Purges Voters’ Names

nytimes.com - October 9, 2008

Foreclosure Law

How foreclosure affects Michigan voting rights

http://mi.barackobama.com/michigancomplaint

Excerpt from lawsuit filed by Obama for America against the Michigan Republican Party, explaining Michigan foreclosure law and voting rights laws.

...[T]he notion that appearance of an address on a foreclosure list means there is good reason to believe that a registered voter listed on the voter registration rolls with such an address no longer can vote at the local polling place and/or is not properly registered to vote ... is simply wrong.

Placement of a house on a public foreclosure notice says nothing about whether an individual who has previously registered at that address remains eligible to vote. Thus, appearance on a foreclosure list provides no rational basis on which to challenge and deter a registered voter's right to vote.

First, that a foreclosure notice has been filed against a particular property says nothing about who resides there. Foreclosure addresses ownership, not residence, which determines the appropriate location for voting. There is no basis, for example, for challenging the right to vote of all of the renters who reside in an apartment building that has been foreclosed. Yet Defendant Republicans' mass challenge program would burden all of these voters' rights to vote by subjecting them to a mass challenge process.

Second, even if the resident and the owner of a property are one and the same, publication of a foreclosure notice begins foreclosure proceedings, but it does not require anyone to leave his or her home. It is commonplace throughout the United States for homeowners who are unable to make mortgage payments to remain in their homes well after foreclosure proceedings have begun in order to negotiate with lenders and attempt to refinance. In Michigan, homeowners may have up to one year and four weeks following initial notice of foreclosure before they must actually leave the home, even assuming the foreclosure proceeds to conclusion without a redemption or other agreement. As a result, there is no reason to believe that someone who has received a foreclosure notice has actually left his or her home.

The most common method of foreclosure in Michigan is by advertisement. Under this type of foreclosure, the lender must advertise the foreclosure sale in the local newspaper at least once a week for four consecutive weeks prior to the sale. Mich. Comp. Laws § 600.3208.
Michigan law does not require residents to leave their homes once a foreclosure notice has been published, and there is no reason to think that anyone would change residences just because notice of foreclosure has been published in the newspaper.

Even after a foreclosure sale has taken place, Michigan homeowners have a right
to stay in their homes while they attempt to "redeem" their property by paying the foreclosure sale price plus interest. Indeed, Michigan law actually encourages people to remain in their homes after the foreclosure sale by reducing the time period for redemption if the foreclosed property is found to have been abandoned. In all cases in which the mortgagee chooses to remain in his or her home, the right of redemption lasts six months after the foreclosure sale, and in many cases may last a full year. SeeMich. Comp. Laws § 600.3240(7)-(12). Only after this redemption period has passed does the deed purchased at the foreclosure sale take effect. Id. §§ 600.3232, 600.3236. Therefore, in many cases a person whose home has been foreclosed will not be required to move out until more than a year after the first foreclosure notice was issued.

In addition, even if a voter has moved from an address, the Michigan election law
establishes a grace period to permit voters to vote at their old precinct based on their old address.

Under Michigan law, voters who move within the city or town are still eligible to vote in their
old precinct after they move, and voters who move to a new city or town within 60 days of an election are still eligible to vote in their old precinct even after they move. Mich. Comp. Laws § 168.507a(1) & (2). That is, Michigan law provides for a voter who was registered to vote in Roseville, and who moved within Roseville, to vote at the voter's old precinct. Similarly, Michigan law provides for a voter who was registered to vote in Macomb County but moved from Macomb County on September 5, 2008, the beginning of this year's relocation grace period, to vote at the voter's old precinct for the November 4election.

Between the four-week foreclosure notice period that must precede any foreclosure sale, the 6- to 12-month redemption period in which a homeowner may continue to reside in a foreclosed home that has been sold, and the 60-day relocation grace period, a voter whose home appeared in a foreclosure notice on or after August 8, 2007 may well be entitled to vote in her original precinct in the November Election – even assuming that the foreclosure went forward, the home was sold, the homeowner did not purchase it during the redemption period, and the homeowner moved outside the town.

Huge numbers of voters whose homes are foreclosed and are forced to move, and are living with friends or family, are still eligible to vote. Of course, in many cases the foreclosure process will have been stopped at some point as the homeowner comes to an agreement with the lender.

News about this

• Lose your house, lose your vote
• http://michiganmessenger.com/
• MI Dems Fight Back Against GOP Attempts to Challenge Voters on Foreclosure Lists
• tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com
• Obama Campaign Files Lawsuit over Foreclosure Challenges
• totallawyer.com