"Aggressive electioneering" at in-person voting sites in NC; "voter history audit" letters appear

[seafan]

NC officials troubled by raucous election activity

October 30, 2012

RALEIGH, N.C.

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The State Board of Elections has received many reports of "aggressive electioneering" at in-person voting sites. Candidate and party activists have been entering no-campaign zones - state law requires a 25- to 50-foot buffer at the door of a voting place - to work potential voters and using profanities and other aggressive language with the opposing side, a state board memo says.

There also have been reports of voters being told wrongly they can vote by phone or they can't vote if they have outstanding traffic tickets. Voters also have complained about letters they've received that contain their voting history and those of their neighbors.

"I have heard more complaints, more misinformation and more what I call intimidation or suppression than any time during my tenure," said state elections executive director Gary Bartlett, who's held the job for nearly 20 years. Independent or third-party groups seem responsible for most activities that prompt complaints, which have come from every area of the state, Bartlett said.

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Bartlett said some people have called to complain they have felt intimidated by letters from at least two groups that contain past voting activity of the recipient and their neighbors.

One letter from the Virginia-based Americans for Limited Government provided by Bartlett thanks the recipient for voting in past presidential elections and urges them to vote this year. The letter also provides what's called a "voter history audit" of the ballot activity. Bartlett's office is monitoring the matter.

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And in "other" news from yesterday:

ThinkProgress: EXCLUSIVE: Romney Campaign Training Poll Watchers To Mislead Voters In Wisconsin, October 30, 2012

Mitt Romney’s campaign has been training poll watchers in Wisconsin with highly misleading — and sometimes downright false — information about voters’ rights.

Documents from a recent Romney poll watcher training obtained by ThinkProgress contain several misleading or untrue claims about the rights of Wisconsin voters. A source passed along the following packet of documents, which was distributed to volunteers at a Romney campaign training in Racine on October 25th. In total, eight such trainings were held across the state in the past two weeks and 17 since late September.

One blatant falsehood occurs on page 5 of the training packet, which informed poll watchers that any “person has been convicted of treason, a felony, or bribery” isn’t eligible to vote. This is not true. Once a Wisconsin voter who has been convicted of a felony completes his or her sentence, that person is once again eligible to vote.

The training also encouraged volunteers to deceive election workers and the public about who they were associated with. On page 3 of the packet, Romney poll workers were instructed to hide their affiliation with the campaign and told to sign in at the polls as a “concerned citizen” instead. As Kristina Sesek, Romney’s legal counsel who just graduated from Marquette Law School last year, explained, “We’re going to have you sign in this election cycle as a ‘concerned citizen.’ We’re just trying to alleviate some of the animosity of being a Republican observer up front.”

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Republicans, circling the drain for the last time, devoured by their own hatred.



These people are a greater threat to the survival of our democracy than any outside entity.


They must be stopped.

[No Elephants]

1. Did anyone call the election commission? The police?

never mind. Silly questions.

Sounds, however, as though people should be pushing for a new elections law.

In Massachusetts, Republicans who run don't even identify themselves as Republicans. They claim to be Independent. And, sadly, some Democrats buy it.

I don't think Scott Brown mentioned the word "Republican" during his entire campaign. And his first ad began with a film clip of JFK speaking. Great strategy, since he was running for Ted's seat.

That was supposedly Romney's campaign team. What happened to them between winning the election for Brown and the Etch A Sketch moment is beyond me.