Let’s stop voter suppression

by Jonah Goldman

A reprehensible voter suppression tactic, "caging," that has been used since 1958 could finally come to an end with a bill introduced by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse on Monday.  The introduction of the Caging Prohibition Act of 2007 is another step forward in our campaign for fair and free elections.  If the bill were law today, the students of Georgia Southern University in Statesboro would not have had to endure blanket challenges to their eligibility to vote.

Tell Congress to support the Caging Prohibition Act, and demand that voter registration challengers be held accountable by signing our petition.

Political campaigns and parties have engaged in caging by sending mail marked "do not forward/return to sender" to a targeted group of voters - typically in minority neighborhoods.  The campaign then creates a list of those whose mail was returned and intimidates voters through the media and at the polling places by challenging voters.

While caging is done in the name of "preventing voter fraud," the true motivation of caging is to suppress minority and low-income turnout for partisan political gain.  The problem with caging is that many voters who end up on caging lists are legitimate voters who: are active members of the armed forces and stationed far from home, students who are lawfully registered at their parents’ address, or ended up on the list because their address appears invalid due to a typographical error during entry of the voter’s registration information. 

The Caging Prohibition Act of 2007 will prevent voter suppression by prohibit challenges to a person’s eligibility to vote (or register to vote) based on a list created through returned mail.  Also, the bill will make it more difficult for political partisans to intimidate voters through mass challenges by requiring any private party who challenges the right of another citizen to vote (or register to vote) to set forth in writing, under the penalty of perjury, the specific grounds for the alleged ineligibility. 

Caging has been happening since an operation was launched in Arizona in 1958.  Most recently, there is evidence that during the 2004 elections caging lists were assembled in Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, possibly intended as the basis for massive voter eligibility challenges.  The Florida incident made headlines again earlier this year during Congress’s investigation into the firing of several U.S. Attorneys, when allegations resurfaced that Tim Griffin, the former RNC opposition researcher then serving as an interim U.S. Attorney in Arkansas, had been involved in an effort to cage voters in Jacksonville.

With the 2008 elections looming on the horizon the time to act is now.  We cannot continue to let incidents like Statesboro continue to happen.  Sign our petition and support the Caging Prohibition Act TODAY!