In the run-up to the 2007 City Council elections in Statesboro, Ga., a voter registration drive put more than 2,000 new voters on the city’s rolls, most of them students at Georgia Southern University. In a city as small as Statesboro — a few hundred people typically voted in some council districts — the influx of new voters meant candidates backed by college students had the potential to reap big rewards.


But an ad hoc coalition of locals called the Statesboro Citizens for Good Government challenged many of the new registrants, asking them to be purged from the voter rolls on the grounds that they were not residents of Statesboro under the guidelines of local election law.

1980s
In 1981 and 1986 the Republican National Committee (RNC) sent out letters to predominately African-American neighborhoods. When tens of thousands of them were returned undeliverable, the party successfully challenged the voters and had them deleted from voting rolls. Due to the violation of the Voting Rights Act, the RNC was taken to court. Its officials entered a consent decree which prohibited the party from engaging in anti-fraud initiatives that targeted minorities or conducting mail campaigns to "compile voter challenge lists."[5]


[edit] 2004 US Election
BBC journalist Greg Palast obtained an RNC document entitled "State Implementation Template III.doc" that described Republican election operations for caging plans in numerous states. The paragraph in the document pertaining to caging was:

V. Pre Election Day Operations New Registration Mailing
At whatever point registration in the state closes, a first class mailing should be sent to all new registrants as well as purged/inactive voters. This mailing should welcome the recipient to the voter rolls. It is important that a return address is clearly identifiable. Any mail returned as undeliverable for any reason, should be used to generate a list of problematic registrations. Poll watchers should have this list and be prepared to challenge anyone from this list attempting to vote.[6][7]

Shortly before the 2004 election, Palast also obtained a caging list for Jacksonville, Florida, which contained a high number of African Americans and registered Democrats. The caging list was attached to an email which a Florida Republican party official was sending to RNC headquarters official Tim Griffin. [7] [8] [9]
The Republican National Committee sent letters to predominately urban minority areas in Ohio. When 35,000 letters were returned as undeliverable, the party employed poll watchers to challenge the voters. Voting rights groups challenged the RNC in a case that went to the Supreme Court, but the RNC was not stopped from challenging those voters. Similarly, the RNC sent out 130,000 letters in Philadelphia hoping to cage voters there. Philadelphia is a city with a majority African American population that votes heavily Democratic. The Republicans were attempting to cage votes by people who were likely to vote for the Democratic candidates. [10]
In the Ohio court challenge, the RNC submitted a caging list that targeted urban and African-American areas in and around Cleveland.[11]
Journalists found evidence that the Republican National Committee (RNC) attempted to use caging to suppress votes in five states in the 2004 US presidential election. For example, in New Jersey RNC officials used caging lists to challenge absentee ballots and absentee ballot requests.[12]

[edit] 2008 US Election
As noted earlier, the Republican Secretary of State in Michigan was found purging voters from voting rolls when voter ID cards were returned as undeliverable. In the court challenge, the federal judge ordered the state to reinstate the voters.[13] The judge ruled that the state's actions were in violation of the NVRA. His decision noted that there was no way to prevent qualified voters from being disfranchised as their cards may be returned as undeliverable due to postal error, clerical error, inadvertent routing within a multi-unit dwelling, and even simple misspelling or transposition of numbers in an address. [14]
In December 2007, Kansas GOP Chair Kris Kobach sent an email boasting, "[T]o date, the Kansas GOP has identified and caged more voters in the last 11 months than the previous two years!"[15]
Republicans sent out fundraising mailers to voters in five Florida counties: Duval, Hillsborough, Collier, Miami-Dade and Escambia, with 'do not forward' on the letters. The mailers included inaccurate Voter ID numbers and ostensibly confirmed with voters they were registered as Republican. The RNC declined to discuss the mailer with the St. Peterburg Times. A representative denied the mailing had anything to do with caging. "Two top Florida elections officials, both Republicans, faulted the GOP mailing, calling it "confusing" and "unfortunate" because of a potential to undermine voter confidence by making them question the accuracy of their registrations." Some officials expressed concern that the RNC would try to use a caging list derived from the mailers.[16]
In Northern California reports of voter caging emerged when letters marked 'do not forward' were sent to Democrats with fake voter ID numbers. The description of the letters matches the letters that were sent out in Florida.[17] See the caging letter that was sent out here. Many details on the letters were false; for example, the letters referred to a Voter Identification Division but RNC personnel said they had no such department. The RNC did not return calls from a news organization regarding the letters.
On October 5, 2008 the Republican Lt. Governor of Montana, John Bohlinger, accused the Montana Republican Party of vote caging to purge 6,000 voters from three counties which trend Democratic. These purges included decorated war veterans and active duty soldiers.[18]
The New York Times found in its review of state records that unlawful actions in six states led to widespread voter purges, which could have impact on the 2008 elections. Some of the actions were apparently the result of mistakes by the states' handling voter registrations and files as they tried to comply with a 2002 federal law related to running elections. While neither party was singled out, because the Democratic Party registered more new voters this year, Democratic voters were more adversely affected by such actions of state officials.[19]

OverbossGhurzubMoga wrote:Lolwut?

In the run-up to the 2007 City Council elections in Statesboro, Ga., a voter registration drive put more than 2,000 new voters on the city’s rolls, most of them students at Georgia Southern University. In a city as small as Statesboro — a few hundred people typically voted in some council districts — the influx of new voters meant candidates backed by college students had the potential to reap big rewards.


But an ad hoc coalition of locals called the Statesboro Citizens for Good Government challenged many of the new registrants, asking them to be purged from the voter rolls on the grounds that they were not residents of Statesboro under the guidelines of local election law.

The article is much longer than this.
I hate Georgia.

1. The college students are transients.

2. The college students have no long term interest in the local community. The "hicks" have to live there.

3. College students don't have a clue about, well anything. Their professors are even worse.

4. College students are easily swayed.

5. College students have excellent parties however, and their protests are usually very easy on the eyes.

OverbossGhurzubMoga wrote:That's why I refuse to vote.

Deff Dread red Edition wrote:Keg parties and drunk,insecure sorority girls.Mmmmh that sounds like my kind of place,where do I sign?

Frazzled wrote:
I can understand it actually.
1. The college students are transients.
2. The college students have no long term interest in the local community. The "hicks" have to live there.
3. College students don't have a clue about, well anything. Their professors are even worse.
4. College students are easily swayed.
5. College students have excellent parties however, and their protests are usually very easy on the eyes.

Fallen668 wrote:The attitudes expressed by those trying to disenfranchise voters really sickens me. Why dont you just say you want a witing period on when someone can vote after they move into an area and raise the voting age and call it a day. Exceptions will be made of course if you register Republican or are in the military.

Also on the vote caging examples... I cut and pasted it from Wikipedia, no edits were made by me. Feel free to find referenceable examples of Dems doing it.

Fallen668 wrote:The attitudes expressed by those trying to disenfranchise voters really sickens me. Why dont you just say you want a witing period on when someone can vote after they move into an area and raise the voting age and call it a day. Exceptions will be made of course if you register Republican or are in the military.

Frazzled wrote:
No, tough back. The “rednecks” have to live there. Interesting that you call the local people rednecks. That right there shows the bias. The rednecks would say you should go feth yourself, and they would be right in saying it.

dogma wrote:
And the assumption that 'college students don't know, well anything' is indicative of a fair-minded attitude? Yeah, I know what I want to say to you.