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A Times reader sends along an interesting visualization of the addresses contained in the “caging” file that was attached to a 2004 email sent from Republican second congressional district candidate Tim Griffin, then national research director and deputy communications chief for the G.O.P., to a campaign chairman and other party officials. For background on the voter caging issue, read articles from Greg Palast here and here. Palast wrote in 2004:

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A check of the demographics of the addresses on the “caging lists,” as the GOP leaders called them indicated that most were in African-American majority zip codes.

Ion Sanco, the non-partisan elections supervisor of Leon County (Tallahassee) when shown the lists by this reporter said: “The only thing I can think of – African American voters listed like this – these might be individuals that will be challenged if they attempted to vote on Election Day.”

…Joseph Agostini, speaking for the GOP, suggested the lists were of potential donors to the Bush campaign. Oddly, the supposed donor list included residents of the Sulzbacher Center a shelter for homeless families.

A spokesperson for the Bush campaign at the time said the caging list was not set up to try to challenge voters. Setting up such a list, wrote Palast, “would be a crime under federal law. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlaws mass challenges of voters where race is a factor in choosing the targeted group.”

The file contains Google street view shots of each of the addresses listed in the excel file. Take a look for yourself. Do these look like potential Bush donors? Think there are any Bush Super Rangers lurking around these confines?

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