Will Foreclosure Victims also be Voter Victims?

Posted on November 6th, 2008 by Samanta Parks

It’s not big news that millions of people have lost their homes to foreclosure over the past year or two. What is news to many of these displaced people is that they could possibly be challenged at the poles for this year’s presidential election.

How could that possibly happen?

This could happen simply because the majority of these people are still registered to vote under the address of the home that was foreclosed, and thus they no longer live in that voting district. Many of them had no idea that they needed to inform the election board of their new address when they moved out of their foreclosed home. These unaware people could show up at the polls unaware that they could be singled out.

Others may not have bothered to change their address with the election board because they do not usually vote. There is expected to be an unprecedented voter turn out for this year’s election and many of them will show up to vote for the first time, also unaware that they could be singled out by voter challengers at the poles.

How will they possibly be singled out?

Lines at voting polls are already expected to be longer than usual this year due to unusually high turn out, but the wait could potentially be made even longer by partisan pole watchers who could legally use foreclosure listings to single out people who went through home foreclosure but did not change their addresses with the election board. Many of these people will be shocked when they are told they are not eligible to vote because of their change of address.

Technically, this sort of challenge could be used because a change of address is legally required to keep your eligibility to vote. Many homeowners do not know that and people who have faced foreclosure are not under any groups listed as people who may need help voting.

Democrats are particularly worried since many lower class voters tend to vote democrat, and a high number of recent home foreclosures are for low income homes. Republicans have denied planning to use foreclosure lists to challenge voters at the polls.

Some liberal groups in Ohio plan to help families in foreclosure as well as homeless people register and vote at the same time, during a one week window starting September 30 where they say it is legal to register and vote simultaneously. This may not happen though, since the Republican Party has filed a law suit in Ohio state court challenging that registering and casting a vote on the same day is against state law.

In some states there it is legal for voters to cast their votes through their former district, given they plan to move back into that district as soon as their circumstances permit them to. One liberal organization is sending letters to these states urging them to inform people going through foreclosure of their voting rights.