ANOTHER DISTRACTION! THE VOTER SUPPRESSION ROBO CALLS WERE REAL!!!

mod mom

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Fri May-02-08 02:04 PM
Original message

ANOTHER DISTRACTION! THE VOTER SUPPRESSION ROBO CALLS WERE REAL!!!

Another media sensation to focus away from what is REALLY going on:

ELECTION 2008
Group with Clinton Ties Behind Dubious Robocalls

by Peter Overby

Listen Now <3 min 55 sec> add to playlist
All Things Considered, May 1, 2008 · Thousands of North Carolina residents answered their telephones last week to hear this message, delivered in a deep, soothing voice:

"Hello. This is Lamont Williams. In the next few days, you will receive a voter registration packet in the mail. All you need to do is fill it out, sign it, date and return the application. Then you will be able to vote and make your voice heard. Please return your registration form when it arrives. Thank you."

In fact, the deadline to register for the May 6 Democratic presidential primary had already passed. The robocall went to many registered voters who were expecting to vote that day. The call and follow-up mailings left many wondering whether they were registered for the primary or not.

This sounds like a classic example of voter suppression — sowing confusion in order to drive down turn-out. The calls seemed to be aimed at African-American communities, places where Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is expected to run well ahead of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

-snip

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90114863

Nonprofit's Contracts Called into Question

by Will Evans

Charity watchdogs say the way the group Women's Voices Women Vote has spent its money on at least one contract raises red flags.

In 2006, the organization paid Integral Resources Inc. nearly $800,000 for phone services. That company's CEO and founder is Ron Rosenblith, who is married to Women's Voices president, Page Gardner. The contract represents 16 percent of the nonprofit's budget. The group is funded mostly through foundations and individual donations.

"I think it's a really big concern," said Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy in Chicago. "It does give an appearance of a conflict of interest."

The question, he and other charity experts say, would be whether Integral Resources profited from its inside connections. Women's Voices did not make anyone available to comment.

-snip

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90114863

Update: Group Promised to Change Calls in February
By Paul Kiel - May 1, 2008, 4:10PM
Since we last posted this morning, there are number of other things to update you on those calls by Women's Voices Women Vote.

First off, North Carolina officials were not the first to specifically object to the group's failure to identify themselves and instead use "Lamont Williams" on the calls. As Facing South points out, back in February, after Virginia police investigated the calls and mailings as a possible identity theft scam, the group's spokeswoman told The Virginian-Pilot that "not including information about the source of the voter registration effort was 'absolutely an accidental omission.'" She also said that the group would be changing the calls so that the group was identified as the source.

Obviously, that didn't happen. When I asked the group about that, a spokesperson told me that the failure to change the script was a "mistake" and added "we're doing our best to figure out how the old script got used."

Meanwhile, a group spokeswoman Sarah Johnson explained in a Q&A at DailyKos that the name Lamont Williams was used because that was the name of the actor reading the script. The calls using Williams' voice went to men -- because she said while the group mainly concentrates on unmarried women, they also target "African Americans, Hispanics and young people" -- and a call using a woman's voice went to women.

And finally, anti-robo call activist Shaun Dakin provides some context for the North Carolina attorney general's accusation that the group's calls were illegal because the group was not identified and did not provide a call back number. Dakin, who heads up Stop Political Calls, a group devoted to combating automated calls by establishing a National Political Do Not Contact Registry, writes that Women's Voices Women Vote is breaking the law, but pretty much everybody else does too:

The reality is that there are more than likely several campaigns and other non-profit organizations that are "failing to disclose who sponsored the call" and "failing to offer the org's contact information to get the calls to stop".
In fact, I know of no political campaign at the national level that offers voters a way to opt out of further calls.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/05/update_womens_voices_calls.php

BREAKING: Source of deceptive NC robo-calls exposed
by ProgressiveSouth

Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 11:24:48 AM PDT

Yesterday, I posted a recommended diary here about thousands of deceptive, anonymous and likely illegal robo-calls blanketing North Carolina shortly before the state's primaries on May 6.
The follow-up below is the result of hours of investigative work over the last 24 hours, including helpful tips from DKos members. Thank you for your assistance in helping us tell this important story.
Please note: Women's Voices Women Vote appears to be a legitimate organization; people we respect support their work. However, we believe that the tactics revealed in our story, as well as the effect they are having on confusing and potentially disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters -- especially right before critical primaries -- are cause for deep concern and raise critical questions about ethical election practices. -- Chris

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/30/11055/6499/141/506343

Robo Call Gives False Voting Info to North Carolina Voters
By Paul Kiel - April 29, 2008, 3:48PM

Here's another for the annals of vote suppression. Calls have gone out to an untold number of North Carolina voters telling them that they need to fill out a registration form before they vote. Democracy North Carolina, a government watchdog that has posted audio (wav) of the call, says that the calls went out to "black neighborhoods."

It seems not to be a scheme limited to North Carolina. As Facing South reports, the same call evidently went out to some voters in Columbus, Ohio two days before municipal elections there last November, and also in Virginia the week before the Democratic primary there this February.

Here's how one reader of the Buckeye State Blog described the Ohio call back in November:
From memory, a stentorian voice reminiscent of James Earl Jones says: "Hello. This is Lamont Williams. In a few days you should be getting a voter registration form in the mail. Please fill it out and return promptly and you will be able to vote. Thank you."

Since the election is Tuesday, the message is nonsensical. Also, I can't find any information on this Lamont Williams. The caller ID was blocked ("unknown caller").

-snip
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/robo_call_gives_false_voting_i.php

Wednesday, April 30, 2008
FACING SOUTH EXCLUSIVE: D.C. nonprofit aimed at women voters behind deceptive N.C. robo-calls
By Chris Kromm

-snip

Some have also questioned the ties between Women's Voices operatives and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton. Gardner, for example, contributed $2,500 to Clinton's HILLPAC on May 4, 2006, and in March 2005 she donated a total of $4,200 to Clinton, according to The Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org. She has not contributed to the Obama campaign, according to the database.

Women's Voices Executive Director Joe Goode worked for Bill Clinton's election campaign in 1992 as a pollster; the group's website says he was intimately involved in "development and implementation of all polling and focus groups done for the presidential primary and general election campaigns" for Clinton.

Women's Voices board member John Podesta, former Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton, donated $2,300 to Hillary Clinton on April 19, 2007, according to OpenSecrets.org. Podesta also donated $1,000 to Barack Obama in July 2004, but that was well before Obama announced his candidacy for president.

"The reports from other states are very disturbing, especially the pattern of mass confusion among targeted voters on the eve of a state's primary," Democracy North Carolina's Bob Hall tells Facing South. "These are highly skilled political operatives -- something doesn't add up. Maybe it's all well-intended and explainable. At this moment, our first priority is to stop the robo-calls and prevent the chaos and potential disenfranchisement caused by this group sending 276,000 packets of registration forms into North Carolina a few days before a heated primary election. We need their immediate cooperation."

-snip
http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/04/facing-south-exclusive-dc-nonprofit.asp

WVWV BOARD AND BIOS:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070706100052/http://www.wvwv.org/aboutwvwv/index.cfm?id=3

Group Missed Oregon Primary Deadline, Too
By Paul Kiel - April 30, 2008, 4:15PM
As an update to my earlier post on the Women's Vote Women's Voices calls, we can show you an example of the voter registration packet the group has been sending out.

Thanks to TPM Reader PC, here is a mailer received by a reader in Oregon, one of the 24 states (pdf) where the group has sent mailers.

The mailer was addressed to PC's wife, and he says she received not one but two copies. He also notes that the mailer arrived just as the deadline to register in Oregon's presidential primary passed. That's been a persistent problem for the group, not only in North Carolina, but also in Virginia and Wisconsin. Wisconsin officials even issued a press release lecturing the group on its methods, saying that the forms would create more confusion and that voters who needlessly registered twice would have to re-register at the polling place because they'd registered past the primary deadline (Wisconsin allows same-day registration). "It's unfortunate that such groups do not inform voters of our deadlines," said Kevin Kennedy, director of the state Government Accountability Board.

So while the spokeswoman for the group told me that the North Carolina calls and mailers were a mix up, it seems that the group has gotten mixed up a number of times before.

Update: As Facing South notes, the mailers originally had language saying that recipients were "required" to mail back the form. That language was dropped after complaints in a number of states and from a number of state officials.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/group_missed_oregon_deadline_t.php

North Carolina AG Opens Investigation of Robo Calls
By Paul Kiel - April 30, 2008, 6:22PM

And yet another development on those calls by Women's Voices Women Vote.

North Carolina's attorney general has just put out a press release (pdf) saying that he's investigating the calls and taking credit for having them stopped. "Regardless of the motivation, the robo-calls violated the law and they needed to stop," Roy Cooper said. He also includes a correspondence with the group's lawyer. In the letter, Cooper requests a variety of information about the calls.

Sarah Johnson, the group's spokeswoman declined to comment on the correspondence, referring questions to the group's lawyer. But she did say that the calls occurred last Thursday and Friday in North Carolina as they did in all the other 24 states (pdf) targeted by the group this April.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/north_carolina_ag_opens_invest.php