Column: Voters Should Be Wary Of Election Tricks
This story was written by Cindy Luo, The Daily Campus
Now that Election Day is upon us, many may have noticed that, over the past few months, campaigns have begun to resort to more creative means to ensure that their candidates gets the most votes. However, some measures are better measures than others. Both sides have done an excellent job in trying to get the voter turnout as high as possible. The Republican and Democratic campaigns have courted voters in the battleground states with phone calls, television ads, letters and even door-to-door attempts. From the Republicans' "72-hour program" of supporters rallying in battleground states to the Democrats' "Persuasion army," both sides have done their best to recruit many people to their causes. Volunteers swarm from both sides to ensure that as many people have their voices heard today as possible. This action is to be lauded as it shows the true nature of the culture of the United States of America. People should absolutely be allowed to go out and convince whomever they can to support their candidate. Canvassing has reached a new high. More and more people are receiving calls, seeing fliers, reading e-mails. This, though, also accidentally spreads misinformation. However, what people should not be allowed to do is maliciously advertise lies about the process of Election Day. This blatantly infringes upon the rights of those who might not have access to all the information they need. These scare tactics attempt to prevent voters who support other candidates from voting. This is not acceptable and should not be believed.The time for election is upon us and though every campaign in the past has faced these underhanded tactics, this election in particular is vulnerable to tricks. False advertisement in the forms of emails, phone calls and fliers are using misinformation and lies to keep people from voting. Nasty rumors drift from inbox to inbox in e-mails, automated robo-calls repeating the same statements over and over again are constantly ringing, and fear tactics fliers are floating about as well.
In this election, there are hints towards racism. In one instance, some people in predominantly black neighborhoods in Philadelphia have reported seeing fliers saying that police would be at polls on Election Day to arrest people who have had any prior offenses. In addition, e-mails have circulated alleging a connection between Obama and the Holocaust, saying that people avoided signs in the 1940s and that, by voting for Obama, Americans are endorsing the same situation.Fliers in Virginia have also appeared about Election Day claiming that because there are so many voters, Republicans will vote on Tuesday and Democrats on Wednesday. In Nevada, Latino voters report having received calls from supposed Obama volunteers urging them to vote over the phone, which is impossible. All of these statements are patently false and have the single purpose of deceit.College students should be especially concerned because they are also subjected to targeting. At Drexel University in Pennsylvania, for example, students report having also seen similar signs about being arrested for previous actions. Also in Virginia, specifically at Virginia Tech, the local election board threatened students with health insurance loss, ineligibility to be dependents towards their parents' taxes and even loss of scholarships. All of this information is simply not true. Voting is a right and neither does nor should it infringe upon another right.These tricks are marring the election. In the end, somebody is going to win and somebody is going to lose. It's the nature of an election. But by tricking voters, a side can only hurt itself. A side should not need to sell itself out or run a dishonest campaign, to win an election. Hopefully one day, we can say "May the best man win" and actually mean it, instead of, "may the best man who uses the most tricks and gets away with it win." Regardless f ideology, let honesty be the best policy today.