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Election Dirty Tricks About To Begin
An anonymous reader writes "ABC is warning that dirty election tricks are about to start. In the past, they've ranged from late-night robo-calls to voter intimidation. ABC has a pretty good list of what to watch out for as told by Allen Raymond, a former Republican operative, who was reformed after spending three months in prison in 2006 for pulling some of the stunts he now helps to prevent." To make this story timely, last week someone broke into a McCain campaign office in Missouri and stole a laptop computer containing "strategic information" about the local campaign.
With less than 28 days to go before election day StopPoliticalCalls.org has started to see reports in the media and from members that the robo calls have started, big time. You can help us Robo calls are the worst form of political campaigning. Candidates can send them and voters receive them and they disappear into thin air. There is no record. Until now. The internet has made it easier than ever to record robo calls and then put them up for the world to listen to. There is no better disinfectant than sunlight. **What we need you to do: StopPoliticalCalls.org is keeping a database of all robo calls that are made in the 2008 election cycle. Since we are non-partisan, we have all calls made from all sides. Here are two examples from members in the past two weeks right here in Northern Virginia. One is Progressive and one is from the VA GOP. 1--Working Families Win Robo call regarding Frank Wolf --> http://thinkdodone.typepad.com/ccd/2008/10/working-familie.html 2--VA GOP robo call --> http://thinkdodone.typepad.com/ccd/2008/09/va-gop-robocall.html **What you can do: 1. Record the robo call. 2. Send the file or link to the file to me at info AT citizensforcivildiscourse.org with the subject: "Robocall Recording: Date, Name of Candidate" **How: 1. If you have a VOIP service like Vonage, it is easy since the system creates files you can email quickly. 2. If you have an old fashioned answer phone simply get out your "camcorder", video tape the answer phone with the volume on, and upload the recording to YouTube. Regards, Shaun Dakin CEO and Founder The National Political Do Not Contact Registry StopPoliticalCalls.org
I live in South Carolina, and have seen many nasty tricks over the years (being in a particularly conservative/religious-nutball/reactionary state). Of course, there was the infamous John McCain flyer that was sent out to upstate Rebublicans in 2000 (implying McCain had a black love child). But the nastiest bit is the one they've done the last two elections (and will almost certainly do again this time). Republicans show up a precincts on or near historically black colleges (like Benedict) and demand to see people's ID's before they vote, checking every crossed "i" and dotted "t" and generally trying to intimidate black voters or make it as hard on them as possible (since they know they'll likely vote Democrat). They do not, of course, do this for precincts at predominantly white colleges or in strong Republican precincts.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Raymond says that such tactics have evolved from some of the more overt voter intimidation schemes seen back in the early 1980s when the GOP's "Ballot Security Task Force" used armed off-duty police officers at the polling places in New Jersey and posted signs reading "voter fraud is a felony." Other underhanded tactics...
So, reminding people that voter fraud is a felony is voter intimidation? Wrong.
Perhaps 'reminding people that voter fraud is a felony' is not voter intimidation. Reminding people that voter fraud is a felony using armed men in uniform is voter intimidation. Are the armed men protecting themselves against similarly armed voter fraudsters? No. The armed men are there to take advantage of the fact that there are very clear demographic statistics that show that some segments of the population (not to be racist, but it's typically African-American and Hispanic citizens) are very afraid of the police (and looking at history, perhaps rightly so). The fact that the men are armed does nothing to assist in 'preventing voter fraud' and does everything to scare away citizens who are skittish of authority and perhaps view their vote as a means of resistance that will not be welcomed by the armed guards...
I spent my Saturday doing it, and felt pretty damn good afterwards for someone who, by right-wing ideology, is doing something morally wrong. I helped a lady born in 1925 who can't talk or get around much anymore (but who had political news on the TV) fill out an absentee ballot application. If it weren't for me, she would not be voting this year. I helped another lady born in 1923 fill out her first ever voter registraition! I had a guy invite me into his (incredibly modest rent-controlled) home, sit down next to his open bible while we filled out his form, and tell me dead serious that he felt God sent me there that day to get him registered. I wouldn't nessecarily agree, but who knows? Perhaps.
As the saying goes, if this is what being wrong feels like, I don't want to be Right.