Distressed Michigan Homeowners: Will they be allowed to vote?

The Democratic Party and Barack Obama’s campaign have decided to file a lawsuit against Michigan Republicans for planning to prevent troubled borrowers from exercising their right to vote. The said lawsuit will protect homeowners facing foreclosure from not being allowed to vote just because their addresses appeared in the foreclosed properties list.

The Democrats’ action was actually based on an article that appeared in the website of Michigan Messenger, entitled “Lose Your Home, Lose Your Vote”. The story included a quote from Macomb County’s Republican Party Chairperson James Carabelli. He said, “We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses.”

When asked, Chairman Carabelli denied saying such remark. Unfortunately, even with his denial, Obama’s campaign has proceeded with the filing of the lawsuit in a Michigan federal court, which seeks an “injunctive relief” from the action of the local GOP. Carabelli insisted that he did not say those things and even threatened to file charges against the Michigan Messenger.

For Obama’s campaign general counsel, the disqualification of these distressed homeowners can be considered as illegal. It is too much to assume that when a property is on the foreclosure list, the homeowners are no longer residing there.

In reality, a grace period will be enjoyed by these distressed homeowners so that they can still vote, even if the property in question will eventually be foreclosed.

As the presidential election draws nearer and nearer, more and more distressed homeowners are worried if they will indeed be prohibited from voting just because their homes are soon to be foreclosed.

Experts and analysts have actually predicted this particular problem early on, when the number of homes entering some stage of foreclosure are reaching record levels. This particular issue should immediately be addressed if the nation is expecting a clean and fair election.