In Final Days, Dirty Tricks Rear Ugly Head

Efforts To Confuse Or Scare Voters Once Again Appear As Election Day Nears

(AP)  In the hours before Election Day, as inevitable as winter, comes an onslaught of dirty tricks - confusing e-mails, disturbing phone calls and insinuating fliers left on doorsteps during the night.

The intent, almost always, is to keep folks from voting or to confuse them, usually through intimidation or misinformation. But in this presidential race, in which a black man leads most polls, some of the deceit has a decidedly racist bent.

Complaints have surfaced in predominantly African-American neighborhoods of Philadelphia where fliers have circulated, warning voters they could be arrested at the polls if they had unpaid parking tickets or if they had criminal convictions.

Over the weekend in Virginia, bogus fliers with an authentic-looking commonwealth seal said fears of high voter turnout had prompted election officials to hold two elections - one on Tuesday for Republicans and another on Wednesday for Democrats. (See the flyer here.)

In New Mexico, two Hispanic women filed a lawsuit last week claiming they were harassed by a private investigator working for a Republican lawyer who came to their homes and threatened to call immigration authorities, even though they are U.S. citizens.

"He was questioning her status, saying that he needed to see her papers and documents to show that she was a U.S. citizen and was a legitimate voter," said Guadalupe Bojorquez, speaking on behalf of her mother, Dora Escobedo, a 67-year-old Albuquerque resident who speaks only Spanish. "He totally, totally scared the heck out of her."

In Pennsylvania, e-mails appeared linking Democrat Barack Obama to the Holocaust. "Jewish Americans cannot afford to make the wrong decision on Tuesday, Nov. 4," said the electronic message, paid for by an entity calling itself the Republican Federal Committee. "Many of our ancestors ignored the warning signs in the 1930s and 1940s and made a tragic mistake."

Laughlin McDonald, who leads the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, said he has never seen "an election where there was more interest and more voter turnout, and more efforts to suppress registration and turnout. And that has a real impact on minorities."

The Obama campaign and civil rights advocacy groups have signed up millions of new voters for this presidential race. In Ohio alone, some 600,000 have submitted new voter registration cards.

Across the country, many of these first-time voters are young and strong Obama supporters. Many are also black and Hispanic.

Activist groups say it is this fresh crop of ballot-minded citizens that makes some Republicans very nervous. And they say they expect the dirty tricks to get dirtier in final hours before Tuesday.

"Oh, there's plenty of time for things to get ugly," said Zachary Stalberg, president of The Committee of Seventy, a Philadelphia-based government watchdog group that is nonpartisan.

Other reports of intimidation efforts in the hotly contested state of Pennsylvania include leaflets taped to picnic benches at Drexel University, warning students that police would be at the polls on Tuesday to arrest would-be voters with prior criminal offenses.

In his Jewish neighborhood, Stalberg said, fliers were recently left claiming Obama was more sympathetic to Palestinians than to Israel, and showed a photograph of him speaking in Germany.

"It shows up between the screen door and the front door in the middle of the night," Stalberg said. "Why couldn't someone knock on the door and hand that to me in the middle of the day? In a sense, it's very smartly done. The message gets through. It's done carefully enough that people might read it."

Such tactics are common, and are often impossible to trace. Robo-calls, in which automated, bogus phone messages are sent over and over, are very hard to trace to their source, say voting advocates. E-mails fall into the same category.

In Nevada, for example, Latino voters said they had received calls from people describing themselves as Obama volunteers, urging them to cast their ballot over the phone.

The calls were reported to Election Protection, a nonprofit advocacy group that runs a hot line for election troubles. The organization does not know who orchestrated them.

"The Voting Rights Act makes it a crime to misled and intimidate voters," said McDonald. "If you can find out who's doing it, those people should be prosecuted. But sometimes it's just difficult to know who's doing what. Some of it's just anonymous."

Trying to mislead voters is nothing new.

"We see this every year," said Jonah Goldman of the advocacy group Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. "It all happens around this time when there's too much other stuff going on in the campaigns, and it doesn't get investigated."

In 2006, automated phone calls in the final days leading to the federal election wrongly warned voters they would not be allowed to vote without a photo ID. In Colorado and Virginia, people reported receiving calls that told them their registrations had expired and they would be arrested if they showed up to vote.

The White House contest of 2004 was marked by similar deceptions. In Milwaukee, fliers went up advising people "if you've already voted in any election this year, you can't vote in the presidential election." In Pennsylvania, a letter bearing what appeared to be the McCandless Township seal falsely proclaimed that in order to cut long voting lines, Republicans would cast ballots on Nov. 2 and Democrats would vote on Nov. 3.

E-mail assaults have become increasingly popular this year, keeping pace with the proliferation of blogging and Obama's massive online campaign efforts, according to voting activists.

"It is newer and more furious than it ever has been before," Goldman said.

And Republicans are not exempt. "Part of it is that election campaigns are more online than ever before," said Goldman. "During the primaries, a lot of Web sites went up that seemed to be for (GOP candidate Rudy) Giuliani, but actually were attack sites."

New York City's former mayor and his high-profile colleagues Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney were also targeted in fake Internet sites that featured "quotes" from the candidates espousing support for extreme positions they never endorsed.

[dagrandma]

Here''s what I have to say about the big coal controversy.

Why does UMWA''s website say this:

"McCain campaign''s last minute distortion of Obama%u2019s coal record an act of desperation"

Who does the UMWA say it is (all caps added by me in one instance):

"The United Mine Workers of America is a growing union with a diverse membership that includes coal miners, CLEAN COAL TECHNICIANS, health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees throughout the United States and Canada."

Sarah Palin needs to go back to Alaska. And she can take John McCain with her.

[golfrnsavh]

Obama Staffer Registered in 3 States, already Voted in 2 - Meet Farah Minwalla, an Obama field organizer in North Carolina. She registered to vote in Mecklenburg County, NC on October 4. According to county auditor reports, the address Minwalla used belongs to a Wanda Nabors. But oddly %u2013 Minwalla is also registered to vote in New York AND Nevada. All three registrations are listed as active. So, is she a resident of North Carolina, Nevada or New York? Technically, it appears she could vote in all three.

Minwalla%u2019s online bio for NextGenNow says she is currently pursuing a degree in English and Journalism in New York City. As recently as July, Minwalla wrote a review for a band in Brooklyn, but now she%u2019s registered to vote in swing state North Carolina. The latest RealClearPolitics poll shows Obama ahead by 0.3 percent, in New York Obama leads by 29.7 percent. As I%u2019ve heard so often from campaigners, every vote counts.

[golfrnsavh]

Here''s what Barry thinks about America, much less the coal industry! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBMdWxcFXQg

[hannity2012]

This will be that America. If as the whites say, there is no racism in America, then what are they afraid of?
--------------------------------
Try to pull the race card, its not that obama black, its that he is the most radical person I have ever known that lives here in AMerica.

[hannity2012]

VIDEO ABOVE - OBAMA OWN WORDS ON DESTROYING COAL INDUSTRY and Having Americans pay more for electricity!!!

watching this video above could get you arrested under Obama Presidency, view with caution, It has gotten me banned 3 times on cbs, but i wont give up and will never give up even if Obama elected we must fight his economy socialist destroying plans)

Posted by hannity2012 at 12:41 PM : Nov 03, 2008

You are a little too late with your rhetoric! Where in the heck have you been these last eight years during Bush''''s reign? We sure could have used more people like you! But, you are too little, too late, my dear...we have already been screwed!
---------------------------------------
You dont even have a clue what being screwed is.

Wait for Obama and his liberal ideology puts together his plan. Being screwed is triple the electricity rates, destroying a Coal Industry and taxing every american heavily to pay for his trillions of dollars worth of Bill Ayers Ideology socialism projects. THATS BEING SCREWED. When your no longer able to use your computer because of the high electricity rates, than come tell me what the definition of screwed is.

[golfrnsavh]

Wow, asking someone to prove legality...now that''s really a dirty trick! We should just turn away and allow Obamites to vote early and often, no matter where they live, if they are felons, have voted in other states, etc. Prepare for the riots, win or lose.

[reedtaz73]

Ha ha ha, spinproof that was a good one...and oh so true. :-)

[spinproof]

The dirtiest trick of all is rich Whites making poor Whites think they are one of them. LOL Poor Whites should vote the issues and not culture.

[solarrays247-2009]

VIDEO ABOVE - OBAMA OWN WORDS ON DESTROYING COAL INDUSTRY and Having Americans pay more for electricity!!!

watching this video above could get you arrested under Obama Presidency, view with caution, It has gotten me banned 3 times on cbs, but i wont give up and will never give up even if Obama elected we must fight his economy socialist destroying plans)

Posted by hannity2012 at 12:41 PM : Nov 03, 2008

You are a little too late with your rhetoric! Where in the heck have you been these last eight years during Bush''s reign? We sure could have used more people like you! But, you are too little, too late, my dear...we have already been screwed!

[lalabradle]

The funny thing is, with all of the dirty tricks and lies the Republican party is using, most of us Americans are being pushed to the other side. We are tired of the lies and deception of the Republican party. That''s why tomorrow, Nov. 4 Obama will be elected as the next president of the United States.

[lalabradle]

This election is bringing to surface all of the racism in America. Racism didn''t just start, it has been a way of life for all races other than white. If you pay attention to all elections, it always comes down to black and white, why? If Obama were not a black man, it would not be such a big deal. I think it is a shame that in 2008 we are not further than we were in 1960. Intimidation at the polls is reliving those times all over again. For the whites that are screaming about racism, it seems to be more of a problem for them than for the blacks. I am glad that Obama will be the next president. Maybe we will become the America that portrays itself as diverse. This will be that America. If as the whites say, there is no racism in America, then what are they afraid of?

[damn_fast]

This is awsome, if you think about it if someone falls for something mabey they are to stupid to vote and we are better off for it. Besides I''m sure no Democrats would ever do something like this (read ACORN) they are way to honest.

[hannity2012]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdi4onAQBWQ

(


VIDEO ABOVE - OBAMA OWN WORDS ON DESTROYING COAL INDUSTRY and Having Americans pay more for electricity!!!

watching this video above could get you arrested under Obama Presidency, view with caution, It has gotten me banned 3 times on cbs, but i wont give up and will never give up even if Obama elected we must fight his economy socialist destroying plans)

[dagrandma]

"Acorn is giveing people cigarettes to post on the net."

Posted by doctor_coo1

Doctor_coo1: How can you post a cigarette online? I''ve been smoking for years and can''t imagine how this could be accomplished.

The truth of the matter is that the Republicans have been screaming "Acorn" so long so the voters would get sick of the voter fraud issue before the Republicans pulled out their bag of dirty tricks. I only hope the authorities can track down those responsible and put them in the slammer where they really belong.

Is it any wonder Obama is ahead in the polls? Is it any wonder people are coming out of the woodwork for early voting? We''ve had enough Republican dirty tricks.

[hannity2012]

The Dirty Trick that was played on the American people is CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and LA TIMES deliberately withholding information on Obama that would inform the public. ALL CALL THESE DIRTY NETWORKS A SYMBOL OF COMMUNISM. Yet its happening in AMerica, kind of fits the Obama Socialist Model, doesnt it.

[whatithink10]

doctor_coo1,

Remind me what you are collecting it for, so I can do the opposite of what your outcome is from the "data" you collect.

[whatithink10]

doctor_coo1,

Do you ever try to tell the truth, ever?

[windmaster12]

Sarah Palin is the Only Candidate who accepts
Socialized, redistribution rebate Checks
Straight from the Oil Co''''s surplus taxation in Alaska---

I don''''t see her racing to send all that spread wealth back!!


That makes her the Hidden Socialist in this race!!!

[abbe91]

"The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government", "and I won''t be buried under their d*a*m*n flag."

"I''m an Alaskan, not an American. I''ve got no use for America or her damned institutions."

Jo Vogel, Founder of AIP

Sarah Palin addressed the Alaskan Independence Party Convention a little over 6 months ago, happily telling its attendees that she shared its "vision of upholding the Constitution of our great state", curiously not mentioning the Constitution of the United States. She encouraged AIP to "keep up the good work".

[whatithink10]

doctor_coo1,

I know you''re mad at me for blowing your coal story away, but don''t worry...THE TRUTH WILL ONE DAY SET YOU FREE!