Vote caging: a continuing story

When I appeared on Bruce DuMont's Beyond the Beltway recently, off camera I asked Chris Dudley, a Republican operative, about vote caging.

Vote caging comes out of direct mail fundraising (think Vicary and Ailes) and according to Wikipedia:

The use of direct mail caging techniques to target voters resulted in
the application of the name to the political tactic. With one type of
caging, a political party sends registered mail to addresses of registered voters.
If the mail is returned as undeliverable - because, for example, the
voter refuses to sign for it, the voter isn't present for delivery, or
the voter is homeless - the party uses that fact to challenge the
registration, arguing that because the voter could not be reached at
the address, the registration is fraudulent.^[4] A political party
challenges the validity of a voter's registration; for the voter's
ballot to be counted, the voter must prove that their registration is
valid.

Dudley portrayed caging as just clearing the voter roles of people who shouldn't be on there anyway. Aviva Patt, now a consultant, but formerly with the IVI-IPO was the other guest on the show noted that caging goes beyond just following the letter of law to check who should and shouldn't be on the voter roles.

The practice is finally being challenged, especially in Florida , where African-Americans welcome the inquiry. Tim Griffin formerly of the Att'y General's Office is tied to this inquiry.

Tags: vote+caging