Ok, when I heard the term “vote caging” during Goodlings testimony, I had to look it up to find out what it meant. Here’s an explanation from Greg Palast:

Vote caging is an illegal trick to suppress minority voters (who tend to vote Democrat) by getting them knocked off the voter rolls if they fail to answer registered mail sent to homes they aren-t living at (because they are, say, at college or at war.

Senators Kennedy and Whitehouse have sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales demanding a probe by the DoJ’s Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility into “allegations that the Republican National Committee engaged in ‘vote caging‘ during the 2004 elections.”

The letter, sent today to Gonzales, also requests an investigation into “whether any Department officials were aware of allegations that Tim Griffin had engaged in caging when he was appointed United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, and whether appropriate action was taken.”

The complete letter and a press release sent along with it are posted in full at the end of this article.

“The Republican Party has a long and ignominious record of caging - much of it focused on the African American community,” Kennedy and Whitehouse explain in their letter which gives details of the RNC using voting caging tactics to suppress minority voters in both 1981 and 1986. After both incidents, the GOP had signed consent decrees that they would not engage in the activity in the future.

More at Bradblog

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