Judith Browne-Dianis, a civil rights attorney and co-director of The Advancement Project, spoke about what happened in Ohio in 2004, when Republican operatives compiled a caging list of 35,000 new voters in predominantly African American communities in preparation for challenges.
The Advancement Project issued a legal challenge on behalf of a black woman in Cleveland and successfully prevented the caging from being implemented during that election.
Chandler Davidson, Professor Emeritus at Rice University and author of the first in-depth examination of voter caging, testified that in 2004 an estimated half-million voters were targeted for vote caging in nine states, with 77,000 having their eligibility challenged in 2006 alone.
"Surely in an advanced democratic society such as ours there are fair effective and efficient methods by which election officials, not party operatives, can ensure that the voter rolls are accurate," he said.
Project Vote weighed in as well, sending a detailed letter to the committee in support of Whitehouse's bill.
"The Caging Prohibition Act of 2007 represents an important step in preventing the unwarranted disenfranchisement of eligible citizens, particularly minorities," wrote Project Vote board president Maxine Nelson. "Partisan politics, whether red or blue or any other political hue, have no place in the administration of elections."
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