Intimidation or sloppiness? GOP robo-calls sowing voter confusion

Intimidation or sloppiness? GOP robo-calls sowing voter confusion
by Goldy, 03/11/2006, 2:40 PM

King County Election Director Dean Logan sent out a press release yesterday, reminding voters that they do not need to re-register in order to vote this fall. Why would Logan feel the need to remind voters of something that they shouldn’t need reminding of?

This week, King County received phone calls from a handful of alarmed voters who received blank voter registration forms in the mail with a notation suggesting that they were not registered to vote. Election officials across the state have received similar calls from voters concerned about the status of their registrations.

“The voters we’ve heard from are properly registered,” said Logan. “They participate in every election and haven’t moved or changed their voting information so the message in the mailing is particularly disconcerting.”

In one incident, a King County voter reported receiving a recorded phone call from a national political campaign committee stating their records indicate she might not be properly registered at her address. The county’s official voter registration records show the woman properly registered.

In fact, I’ve been hearing scattered reports of these robo-calls for the past couple weeks, and it’s not exactly clear what the motive is. Is this some kind of incompetent GOP GOTV campaign? Or is it yet another ham-fisted example of Republican voter intimidation and suppression?


more at:
http://www.horsesass.org/index.php?p=1447

The GOP here and EFFWA have been trying to get legislation passed to restrict voters and lower turnout. One of these pieces has been in the press, which is an initiative to require voters to prove their citizenship and re-register. More about that here: http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2006/02/eff-wants-to-disenfranchise-washington.html

Maybe they're trying to plant the idea that the legislation passed or hoping the people contacted will think they can't vote. Either way, they're slimy.

Thanks for posting this, kpete. They're obviously starting their dirty campaign early and we'll need to watch keep tabs on their attempts to disenfranchise voters.

as time moves along now ...