Is the Republican Party Violating the Voting Rights Act?

Last month while testifying in front of the House judiciary committee, Monica Goodling referred a number of times to possible "Vote Caging" done by Arkansas' interim U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin. Bush-Cheney operatives also participated in this illegal suppression scheme in Florida during the 2004 election campaign.

The term "Vote Caging" is not a household word, so Goodling had to explain its meaning to the committee. Vote caging is an illegal method of suppressing minority voters (who tend to vote Democrat) by getting them kicked off the voter rolls if they don't answer registered mail sent to homes they aren't living at. These voters are soldiers or marines at war, homeless, or away at college pursuing a degree. When one of these voters sends in their absentee ballot, Republicans quietly challenge the vote and it is dismissed without the voter ever knowing.

During the 2004 election year President Bush's lackeys suppressed African-American voters this way:

They sent several hundred thousand letters marked "Do Not Forward" to voter's homes. Letters returned ("Caged") were used as evidence to block these voter's ballots based on the grounds that they had registered phony addresses. As it turned out, most of these voters were African-Americans who were homeless, off to war, or students vacationing.

Evidence has been compiled by Greg Palast, investigative reporter, from statements made to the House judiciary committee, emails sent from key republicans, and spreadsheet documents detailing voters targeted. The spreadsheets are most revealing, as research has found that a majority of the targeted voters are African-American or other minority group, are homeless (as evidenced by letters sent to homeless shelters), or deployed soldiers. The spreadsheets are titled "Caging".

Why has the U.S. press refused to cover this story in mainstream media? BBC London covered the story, as well as media outlets in other countries. Citizens of the United States are blissfully unaware of this illegal voter suppression scheme while around the world our system of Democracy has been challenged.