Voting rights controversies

The Michigan Secretary of State's office has denied allegations in a New York Times article from today claiming that Michigan is one of several swing states that has removed many people, "tens of thousands of eligible voters," from the voter rolls in clumsy attempts to comply with federal law, the Help America Vote Act.  The removal of voters in this way in fact appears to be a breech of federal law.  The NYT printed that approximately 33,000 voters were removed from the rolls in Michigan, but a Secretary of State spokesperson has countered that number, and claims that the newspaper could not explain to them the methodology used to examine state records and Social Security data to arrive at that figure.  The spokesperson says that about 11,000 people have been removed for legitimate reasons such as moving out of state or passing away.  The New York Times notes in their article that since the Democratic campaign has been working so hard to register new voters that they will suffer the most from voters being removed from the rolls.

Meanwhile, the Michigan Messenger is fighting a defamation lawsuit over an article quoting James Carabelli, the Macomb County Republican Party Chairman, as saying the Republicans planned to use foreclosure lists to block people from voting.  The publication stands by its reporter and will not issue a retraction, although Carabelli claims that his words were changed or fabricated.  The Michigan Messenger's parent organization, the nonpartisan Center for Independent Media, also stands by the reporter's integrity.  The reporter claims to have notes that back up the quote from Carabelli.  It is interesting that the article in the Messenger article seems to have generated substantial reporting and outcry from bloggers and some political commentators, but not from a lot of mainstream media.  Nonetheless, enough of an outcry was raised that the Michigan GOP must respond in an action as forceful as a lawsuit.  If nothing else, this shows the upcoming influence of informal, Internet reporting.  It also highlights issues of accuracy with online reporting.