The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee have filed a lawsuit in federal court over the Michigan Republican Party’s plan to use foreclosure lists to challenge voters at the polls, as first reported by our sister site the Michigan Messenger.

Bob Bauer, general counsel for the Obama campaign, and Mark Brewer, chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, announced the lawsuit in a conference call with reporters this afternoon.  It was filed on behalf of the campaign, the party and three Michigan residents who have had their houses foreclosed upon in recent months.

Last week, James Carabelli, chairman of the Macomb County GOP, told the Messenger’s Eartha Melzer in a phone interview: “We will have a list of foreclosed homes and will make sure people aren’t voting from those addresses.” The Michigan Republican Party has denied that Carabelli made the statements that the Messenger reported.

But Bauer told reporters that the complaint includes quotes from Republican operatives in Ohio and other states making similar comments and defending the legitimacy of using foreclosure lists to strike voters from the rolls. He labeled the tactic “false and illegal,” noting that receiving a foreclosure notice is not evidence that the person’s address has changed.

Brewer noted that in July alone 11,000 Michigan residents received foreclosure notices. The McCain campaign, he argued, “wants to add insult to injury” by denying those residents their right to vote. “The right to vote is one of our most fundamental rights as Americans,” said Brewer. “To try to strip our fellow citizens of their right to vote is un-American and unconscionable.”