FBI, Board of Elections to investigate Virginia suppression

So far, there's been no update on this report from the Associated Press which appeared earlier today, confirming that the FBI and State Board of Elections in Virginia would be investigating multiple reports of voter suppression tactics:

The FBI said today it is investigating complaints about attempts to intimidate Virginia voters amid the hard-fought U.S. Senate race between GOP Sen. George Allen and Democratic challenger Jim Webb.

Jean Jensen, secretary of the State Board of Elections, said her office had forwarded several reports of phone calls to voters apparently aimed at misleading them into not voting or going to the wrong polling place. [...]

Voters in the cities of Covington, Hampton and Colonial Heights and the counties of Accomack, Northampton and Fairfax reported getting deceptive telephone calls in the days before the election informing them that their voting places had changed, when they had not, Jensen said.

In Arlington County, resident Timothy Daly said he got a phone message Sunday, said to be from the so-called Virginia Elections Commission, telling him he was registered to vote in New York so he couldn't vote in Virginia.

"If you do show up, you will be charged criminally," said the message, the text of which appeared on Daly's affidavit to the Board of Elections. Daly, who has been registered to vote in Virginia since 1998, also has filed a criminal complaint with local prosecutors.

Lawrence Peter Baumann, a Northampton County resident, said in his affidavit that he got a call Friday from a woman claiming to be from the Webb campaign. He said he assured her he planned to vote for Webb.

"She then told me that I would be voting at West Reed Street. I told her that there was no street by that name and that if she was supposed to be helping Webb, she needed to give correct information," Baumann's affidavit said. "She never gave me the correct precinct and never offered to get back to me with my correct precinct."

Audio of one of the dubious phone calls is available on YouTube. None of these tactics are new; but the power of automated phone technology make its impact much bigger.