Early Voting for the November election starts tomorrow.

The hours for Okaloosa County are:

• Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Friday: 10:00am-6:00pm
• Wednesday & Saturday: 7:00am-3:00pm

They are using the same three locations, the Supervisor of Elections office and Sikes Library in Crestview, and the University of Florida facility off Lewis Turner Boulevard in Shalimar, that they used for the primary early voting. They have maps at the Early Voting link above.

Early voting continues until Saturday, October 30^th.

Teresa Dixon Murray of The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a series of articles on the problem: Mortgage foreclosure uproar sweeps up Northeast Ohioans

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Michael and Pamella Negrea have never been late on a mortgage payment in the 15 years they’ve owned their home in Eastlake. But they’ve been foreclosed on three times.

Martin and Kirsten Davis, meanwhile, lost their home in Cleveland to foreclosure two years ago. The reason: a mess that started when they accidentally paid 14 cents too little on their monthly payment.

And Michael Rendes of Berea had his mortgage sold last year to Bank of America. The bank foreclosed on him in November, after insisting for months that it didn’t hold his loan and wouldn’t accept his payments.

Read the whole thing with one thought in mind, are the banks trying to make income from mortgages, or are they intent on ripping people off?

If you aren’t sure read Ms Murray’s separate piece on Michael and Pamella Negrea

EASTLAKE, Ohio — The first time Michael and Pamella Negrea were foreclosed upon in 2001, the suit was thrown out of court. They had never even made a late payment.

That didn’t stop GMAC Mortgage.

In 2005, two years after the case was dismissed, GMAC filed for foreclosure again. This time, the Negreas sued for breach of contract, fraud and unfair debt collection. They won more than $217,000, and the foreclosure was thrown out again.

And still that didn’t stop GMAC.

Keep in mind that if a foreclosure has been filed, your credit is ruined, so you can’t simply refinance your house with another bank. Even if you could, you can’t stop your mortgage from being sold to the bank you dumped.

The Service Employees International Union has a web site up, Where’s The Note?, with information on finding out who holds your mortgage. After reading these articles, I hope people understand why that’s important. “Lawyers, guns and money” – they are your only real defense.