September 23, 2008

Pro-Proposition 8 Dirty Tricks Have Started: Alleged Phone “Poll” Gives “No” Voter Wrong Election Date

The liars are phone banking in force. Here’s how one phone call went, per Laila Lalami (an author whose name you may recognize):

Pollster: Do you know about Prop 8?

Me: Prop 8?

Pollster: This is the proposition that would define marriage in the California state constitution as the union of one man and one woman.

Me: Oh, right.

Pollster: In 2000, California overwhelmingly passed a proposition that amended the family code in this way, but it was over-ruled by the California courts.

Me: (silence). …

OK, so the caller is feeding Lalami the same old tired propaganda — but that’s not the point. This is:

Pollster: If the election were held today, how would you vote on Prop 8? Yes or no?

Me: No.

Pollster: oh, ok. Is that a ‘probably no’ or a ‘definitely no’?

No: Definitely no.

Pollster: Oh, OK. That’s all the questions I have. Well, remember to vote on November 8. [click]

The election is November 4th, not the 8th.

An honest mistake? No way. This is one of the most common ploys used to suppress votes, and it often works:

In Maryland’s 2002 gubernatorial election, anonymous fliers were distributed in black neighborhoods in Baltimore gave voters the wrong date for Election Day and told them to be sure to pay parking tickets, overdue rent and outstanding warrants. …

Groups Say GOP Moves to Stifle Vote
Washington Post, August 26, 2004

Nearly 40 years after passage of the Voting Rights Act, dirty tricks and intimidation tactics against black voters are alive and well, [Julian] Bond said. In Louisiana in 2002, he said, fliers were passed out in African-American neighborhoods advertising the wrong date for a U.S. Senate runoff election. In the 2003 mayoral election in Philadelphia, he added, men wielding clipboards and official-looking law enforcement insignia paroled African-American neighborhoods asking voters for identification. …

“It will be worse than in 2000″
Salon.com, October 28, 2004

024241 11/01/04, 1:53 PM PST Voter Intimidation West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida Misleading phone calls re election date (to Nov 3) if voting for Kerry. Person provided phone number of the source of the call. 027411 11/01/04, 6:34 PM PST Other polling place problem West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Co. County, Florida Caller first asked for polling place; I provided. Then he told me he received a call from someone who identified as being from the GOP and told him his polling spot had been destroyed by a hurricane, and gave him a different address. He then called the local Republican party and told them about this phone call. They asked for his name and address and told him his polling place was actually 60 miles away, not the one listed on the Palm Beach Co. Supervisor of Elections website. …

024241 11/01/04, 1:53 PM PST Voter Intimidation West Palm Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida Misleading phone calls re election date (to Nov 3) if voting for Kerry. Person provided phone number of the source of the call. …

Florida Dirty Tricks & Election Fraud (2004)
Votersunite.org
via Florida League of Conservation Voters Education Fund

In the 2006 election, there were numerous examples of efforts to deceive or intimidate voters to keep them away from the polls. In the last election, examples of voter deception or intimidation were many. For example, voters witnessed dirty tricks like flyers with the wrong date to vote posted in minority communities. Letters in Spanish were sent to voters in Orange County, California stating that it was a crime for an immigrant to vote. In fact, legal immigrants who are naturalized citizens have the right to vote just as any other American citizen can. In Virginia, voters received calls from a so-called “Virginia Elections Commission” informing them falsely that they were ineligible to vote. In Maryland, flyers were handed out on election day in minority communities that gave the impression that Republican candidates for office were Democratic candidates. These dirty tricks are not new. In 2002, flyers were distributed in public housing complexes in Louisiana, telling people that they could cast their votes three days after election day if the weather was bad. …

Voter Intimidation
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 2007

…states and localities are stingy about paying for elections, so election officials do not have enough workers, training, computers and voting machines. Frequently, though, the driving force is partisanship. Some political interests benefit from low turnout, particularly among minorities, the poor, students and the elderly.

Campaigns and parties often use dirty tricks to suppress the vote, such as circulating leaflets in particular areas giving the wrong date for the election. …

The Right to Vote
New York Times, August 8, 2008

Also:

First Dirty Trick of the Year in Ohio’s 2006 Election?
Old, Out of Date Absentee Applications and Voter Registration Forms Found in Libraries Across Buckeye State
BradBlog, October 3, 2006

Shenanigans in Fort Worth’s District 9 election
Fliers of questionable origin try to discourage turnout with the wrong election date
Pegasus News, November 5, 2007

And the list goes on and on.

Folks, make sure everyone around you knows the correct date for the November 4th election. Bloggers and other Webmasters, it would be a good idea to post a sticky about it — I’m going to do just that here.

By the way, I sent a report, with a link to Lalami’s post, to VotersUnite.org.

Posted by: Sapphocrat

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