N.C. NAACP files formal vote-suppression complaint against Women's Voices, alerts U.S. DOJ of concerns
The North Carolina NAACP has filed a formal complaint of possible voter suppression against Women's Voices Women Vote, the D.C. nonprofit that as we revealed earlier this week was behind the deceptive and illegal robo-calls made to state residents. The N.C. NAACP hand-delivered its complaint today to state Attorney General Roy Cooper and State Board of Elections Executive Director Gary Bartlett. It's also alerted the U.S. Department of Justice that it's collecting more information from its national network and is contemplating filing a formal complaint with that agency.N.C. NAACP President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (center in photo) announced the filing of the complaint at a press conference held this afternoon outside the N.C. Department of Justice. He was joined by his group's attorney, Al McSurely (left), and Bob Hall (right) of Democracy North Carolina. The state Attorney General's office is already investigating Women's Voices, but the N.C. NAACP and Democracy North Carolina want to be parties to that investigation.
"When you mess with the right to vote, you're messing with everything that is fundamental in our democracy," Barber said.
Here is the full text of the group's complaint, dated May 2. When it refers to "Ex. 1," that is the WVWV letter to Gary Bartlett available here [PDF]; "Ex. 2" directs readers to news reports at DailyKos, Facing South and NPR. "HKonJ" refers to Historic Thousands on Jones Street, a statewide coalition of some 70 social justice groups organized by the N.C. NAACP; Jones Street is where the state legislature is located in Raleigh.
RE: Voter Suppression Activity Targeting Black Voters in North Carolina
Dear General Cooper and Mr. Bartlett:
On behalf of the North Carolina Conference of over 100 NAACP Branches across North Carolina, I file this formal complaint against an organization out of Washington, D.C. called Women's Voices Women Votes (hereafter "WVWV") that has engaged in a pattern of massive robo-calls and mass mailings that appear to be designed to suppress and dilute voter participation, with a peculiar focus on African Americans.
One of our HKonJ Partners, Democracy North Carolina, made a request to both agencies earlier this week, to investigate automated telephone calls with misleading information about the voting process made to African Americans. We now know the source of the calls to be WVWV and we know from this group's own admission in a letter faxed to Mr. Bartlett on 28 April 2008 that it knew these messages would confuse voters. The Attorney General has taken initial action to stop the illegal calls, but there needs to be a much more aggressive investigation into WVWV's intentions and aims and the effects of its massive efforts to confuse voters.
Who was targeted? Why? How could a national organization be ignorant of the dates of one of most important primaries in the history of our State? How could a national organization give such wrong-headed directions to unregistered voters during the exact same period when they could easily register through our one-stop early voting procedure? Does the evidence show that WVWV violated NC General Statute 163-275(17),which makes it a felony crime to communicate misleading information about the voting process with the "intent and the effect" "to intimidate or discourage potential voters from exercising their lawful right to vote." Democracy North Carolina joins with us in requesting a much more aggressive investigation of the actions of the group. Here are some of the areas we urge you to look into:
1. The WVWV told Mr. Bartlett in its 28 April 2008 letter that it was about to mail voter registration information to 276,118 unmarried women in North Carolina and that it was sending similar mailings to "unmarried women not just in North Carolina, but around the country." (See Ex. 1) A comprehensive examination of the mailing list must be done to determine how many of these letters wnet to "unmarried women" as opposed to African Americans and other people of color, how many of each group were registered or not registered, and which misleading message each group received.
2. Although in this same letter the WVWV said it was only targeting unmarried women, three days later, on 1 May 2008, after Democracy North Carolina had raised the issue of possible targeting of African Americans, the WVWV denied it only targeted unmarried women. In a written answer it said: "While our focus is on unmarried women, we have worked to target other under-represented groups through our project, the Voter Participation Center." (Ex. 2) To what extent does the WVWV discriminate in how it communicates to African Americans in contrast to unmarried women? We cite as one example the contrast in the automated telephone messages sent to black versus white households in late April.
To speed your investigation (it is probably too late to prevent or remedy the damage done to voter turnout during early voting and on Tuesday, May 6th, but we trust a solid investigation will prevent similar misfeasance in future elections), permit us to share with you the information we have gathered since we first became aware of the confusing robo-calls and mailings a few days ago:1. WVWV admitted it made thousands of automatic calls to North Carolina residents on 24 and 25 April 2008. (See Ex. 2) On calls, apparently to white women, a woman said: "Hi. Just a reminder. Your voter registration form is in the mail to you. Your voice counts and your vote [indecipherable]. Sign it, date it and send it in. Thanks!"
2. An African American man, who identified himself as Lamont Williams (hereafter "Lamont") gave the following message to other homes: "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 your application. Then, you will be able to vote and make your voice heard. Please return your registration form when it arrives. Thank you." According to WVWV, "Mr. Williams is a professional voice talent," and his calls only went to men and a woman was used to contact women."
3. Lamont's calls tell people that are registered that they are not and that the only way they can vote is to wait a few days, get a form in the mail, fill it out and mail it back in. As one commentator said, "Whether the result of deliberate design or massive negligence on the part of WVWV and/or its vendors in terms of the timing of the calls and the determination of who would be called, the end result is something which rightly raised suspicions about the intent of this program."
4. Contrary to North Carolina law, there was no identification of the organization who had paid for the call, WVWV, or its "project" organization, Voter Participation Center, nor did Lamont provide any way for the receivers of his misleading message to check on it, if they had questions.
5. Mr. Kevin Farmer, in Durham, N.C. has an original tape of Lamont's message, which was apparently aimed at a young African American male voter who had registered to vote for the first time in 2004, and whose 2004 telephone number was reassigned to the store where Mr. Farmer now works.
6. Rev. and Mrs. Nelson Johnson received Lamont's message three times. Neither are unmarried women--they are African American civil rights activists in Greensboro.
7. When Lamont's messages were sent to hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians on April 24th and 25th the deadline to register for the May 6 primary had passed if you tried to register by mail. You could easily register--and Vote! by going to a one stop early voting place. WVWV focus has been on unmarried women. (See Ex. 1)
8. WVWV sent Mr. Bartlett its fax from the Institute of Women's Policy Research which has the same address, 1707 L Street NW, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20036 as the Women's Voices. The letter was dated April 24, but the fax was sent late in the afternoon of April 28, which was the same day the mailing was scheduled to leave the mail house for North Carolina.
9. In the letter to Mr. Bartlett, the WVWV explained its massive 276,118 mailing that was about to be sent, but did not mention Lamont's calls or any other calls, presumably to the same people, telling them to look for the mailer. (Ex. 1)
10. Copies of the mailing pieces were not sent to Mr. Bartlett for his review or even as a courtesy. Some of the messages on the mail pieces are misleading while others appear to misrepresent North Carolina law regarding the registration process. For example, some say, "The deadline for voter registration is approaching," but the mail-in deadline has ended two weeks earlier. Some say, "state law requires you to update your voter registration records," but voters who move within a county are allowed to vote without previously changing their registration.
11. WVWV has said they have tried to delay the 276,000 pieces of mail destined for North Carolina and that "a majority of the mail that was going to North Carolina will not be delivered, and our folks are continuing to try to make sure that as much of the NC mail as possible is held until a later date." (Ex. 2) Based on conversations with WVWV's vendors and postal officials on Friday, approximately 110,000 pieces are still being delivered this week, most heavily in Eastern North Carolina.
12. WVWV said it "was a mistake" for Lamont not to identify the sponsoring organization and "we regret the error and will ensure it does not happen again." WVWV has repeatedly been challenged on the inaccurate and misleading mass robo-calls and mass mailings in other states, and it merely apologizes, and says they will do better in the future. Months ago, we understand, WVWV pledged to identify the source of Lamont's calls. This promise was broken.
13. The robo-calls in N.C. were part of a massive set of calls and mailings in 24 states in late April 2008 that included Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Oregon--all states where the voter registration deadline has passed and the primary is approaching. Two months earlier, on 6 and 7 February during other primary campaigns, Lamont, or someone acting for WVWV, made millions of calls in 22 states, including Virginia. At that time, the registration deadline had passed in Virginia and the primary was days away. The resulting chaos led to an investigation by the State Police and more promises from WVWV to change its deceptive practices.
14. WVWV says it was fully aware of the closing of the registration rolls in North Carolina, the availability of one-stop registration/voting, and other important voting factors that would influence the impact of its call/mailing operation. In its letter to Mr. Bartlett, WVWV apologized for the confusion its poor timing caused, but dismissed the timing as an "unfortunate coincidence."
15. Voters in Virginia, Oregon, Wisconsin, Kentucky and Michigan complained to the WVWV that the anonymous calls probably caused voter confusion and frustration. The Institute for Southern Studies found media or other reports about complaints regarding WVWV calls or mailings in at least 10 states in the past five months.
By copy of this letter we alert the U.S. Department of Justice that the NC NAACP is collecting more information through our national network in contemplation of filing a formal complaint about this issue. We also copy this letter to our National NAACP leadership, which has approved these complaints. Through our national organization, we will see information about how these confusing robo-calls and mailings affected minority voter participation in other states, such as West Virginia, Virginia and Kentucky, as we continue our discussions about our next steps to expose efforts to confuse and mislead voters in key primary states. We will also be consulting with two national Election Protection hotlines that are monitoring the primary election in North Carolina to evaluate whether their findings shed additional light on the actions of WVWV.
The letter is signed by Barber and copied to Julian Bond, chair of the NAACP's national board; NAACP Interim CEO Dennis Hayes; Angela Ciccolo, NAACP's interim general counsel; and Christopher Coates, acting chief of the U.S. DOJ's Voting Section.
To listen to WVWV's Lamont call, click here. For the call with the woman's voice, click here.
(Photo of Al McSurely and Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II of the N.C. NAACP and Bob Hall of Democracy North Carolina by Sue Sturgis)
Labels: democracy north carolina, department of justice, facing south, NAACP, north carolina primary, robo-calls, roy cooper, voting rights, women's voices women vote
20 Comments:
There is no "there" there in this story.
Robocalls are done by non-profits and politicians and they all "violate the law" by often not identifying who paid for them and NEVER giving voters a chance to opt out of future calls.
Robocalls invade the privacy of ALL voters.
That is why Sen. Feinstein introduced the Robocall Privacy Act and why I testified at the U.S. Senate on this subject.
WVWV is doing some good progressive voter registration work around the nation.
They may be incompetent, but they are not some evil Clintonites.
Regards,
Shaun Dakin
CEO and Founder
http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org
DEBATE! DEBATE!! DEBATE!!!
It's time for everyone to face the truth. Barack Obama has no real chance of winning the national election in November at this time. His crushing defeat in Pennsylvania makes that fact crystal clear. His best, and only real chance of winning in November is on a ticket with Hillary Clinton as her VP.
Hillary Clinton seemed almost somber at her Pennsylvania victory speech. As if part of her was hoping Obama could have proved he had some chance of winning against the republican attack machine, and their unlimited money, and resources.
But it is absolutely essential that the democrats take back the Whitehouse in November. America, and the American people are in a very desperate condition now. And the whole World has been doing all that they can to help keep us propped up.
Hillary Clinton say's that the heat, and decisions in the Whitehouse are much tougher than the ones on the campaign trail. But I think Mr. Obama faces a test of whether he has what it takes to be a commander and chief by facing the difficult facts, and the truth before him. And by doing what is best for the American people by dropping out of the race, and offering his whole hearted assistance to Hillary Clinton to help her take back the Whitehouse for the American people, and the World.
Mr. Obama is a great speaker. And I am confident he can explain to the American people the need, and wisdom of such a personal sacrifice for them. It should be clear to everyone by now that Hillary Clinton is fighting her heart out for the American people. She has known for a long time that Mr. Obama can not win this November. You have to remember that the Clinton's have won the Whitehouse twice before. They know what it takes.
If Mr. Obama fails his test of commander and chief we can only hope that Hillary Clinton can continue her heroic fight for the American people. And that she prevails. She will need all the continual support and help we can give her. She may fight like a superhuman. But she is only human.
Sen. Hillary Clinton: "You know, more people have now voted for me than have voted for my opponent. In fact, I now have more votes than anybody has ever had in a primary contest for a nomination. And it's also clear that we've got nine more important contests to go."
Sincerely
Jacksmith... Working Class :-)
WVWV issued a statement today, explaining more of the circumstances around the calls and clarifying more of how this happened:
http://www.wvwv.org/2008/5/3/wvwv-voter-registration
Womens Voices, Women Vote has registered over 400,000 unmarried women, African American and Latina voters this cycle. We have mailed applications forms to over 10 million prospective voters in 26 states. For those unregistered people for whom we have phone numbers, we provide a robo call alerting them that they'll be receiving a registration application in the mail, and urging them to fill it out and return it.
Our North Carolina phone calls and mailing went not only to African American voters but to unmarried women and Latinas. It is hard to imagine why we would have mailed to all these constituencies if we were trying to help one candidate or suppress the vote of one demographic group.
This week, there was a misunderstanding about the robo calls preceding our mailed registration applications in North Carolina. Apparently someone complained that they were already registered, and believed that a call urging them to register might have been intended to create ambiguity about their registration status.
Like many other voter registration groups, we typically continue our voter registration work without a pause up until the general election registration deadline. We have not typically closed down operations during the window when registration will be too late to participate in a primary, but is still in plenty of time to participate in a general election. We do not believe that people who are in fact registered to vote jump to the conclusion that they can't vote simply because they are offered another opportunity to register.
Unfortunately, steadily increasing voter suppression efforts in recent years have created a not-unreasonable sense of suspicion among all of us who support voting rights. In the North Carolina case, it led some to jump to a very wrong conclusion.
We regret any misunderstanding although clearly the mail would have informed all who received the calls as to our identity and the registration rules and deadlines. We have concluded that, in this context, we will not in the future mail or call during the window between close of registration for the primary and the primary election.
This has nothing to do with Clinton or Obama, but I am sorry folks -- your excuses for WVWV do not hold water.
Why?
Because they were told by authorities in ELEVEN OTHER STATES that what they were doing was wrong and causing great damage and they refused to stop. This goes way beyond incompetence.
They deserve to be shut down. This is apparently the only way to stop them from doing it again.
They brought this on themselves. I don't care if they are progressive or have done good work in the past -- they have done incredible damage with their arrogance and incompetence and they have brought this on themselves.
All they had to do was listen to one of the states that complained and moderate their behavior.
They refused to do so.
They deserve everything they get.
By the way, Shaun, their "good progressive work" consists primarily of re-registering hundreds of thousands of confused and already registered voters.
All they are really doing is creating unnecessary work for local board of election workers.
I'd think long and hard before I put my reputation on the line for these people. You can't pretend they didn't break the law just because they are on your side. The evidence is overwhelming that they knew they were doing great harm and continued to do it -- and that companies connected to their president and board members profited greatly from their continuing to do so.
Keep up the good work, revealing the truth about these operations.
There's no doubt in my mind that something illegal has been done here.
This woman who heads WVWV claims to have 16 years of political experience, and yet wastes hundreds of thousands of her organization's dollars in State after State to provide bogus information to millions of voters. Even after the organization gets complaints months ago and promises to stop the inaccuracies, the pattern continues.
It was made clear to the organization over and over since February that the nature of their robo-calls were illegal, full of inaccuracies and yet they persisted in the behavior.
The ultimate proof would be to find the actual research done, and ensure that it was deliberately targeted for black communities to receive incorrect information.
But I think there's already more than enough proof of outright criminality.
Gross incompetence is one thing.
The repetitive nature of these mistakes, spanning more than 10 separate occasions without corrective action taken [even after promising correct action] is a clear indication of illegal intent.
Thank you Facing South for getting this story out there.
And Thanks to Bob Hall, for his part.
BIG THANKS to NAACP for lending its legal muscle to this issue.
I tried to find a non profit with attorneys to get involved, but at issue is that many share the same donors, and can't step on each other's toes.
WVWV could have avoided all of this by simply asking our SBOE for input first, or by examining our laws. For such a hefty organization, I am astonished at their actions.
If WVWV wanted to help voters, they would have targeted un-registered voters only, and would have urged them to vote early, where they could also register or clear up any registration problems.
They made the calls during the early voting "season".
That WVWV instead led black voters to believe they weren't registered, is a gigantic smack in the face of our voters, our state, our voter advocacy groups and our election officials. Its an embarrassment and brings back our old shameful Jim Crow days.
As a voter advocate, I know that this is outrageous and that it would have been very easy to give voters the right advice. Instead, WVWV "gave" the gift of this disenfranchising advice.
You have this COMPLETELY wrong. Women's Voices. Women Vote. is not trying to suppress black voters in any way shape or form. Did they make a VERY regrettable mistake? Yes. But what are they trying to do? They are trying to register and turn out unmarried women, including unmarried African American women who have a large stake in this election.
Page Gardner, the president and founder of the organization has spent her life trying to help ensure that underrepresented Americans are able to have a voice and a say in American political processes. Please do some research before you attack someone and their organization. What they are trying to do is REGISTER and TURN OUT voters. You are working on the same side, so why fight each other? Fight the real people who are trying to suppress voters, and use your energy and brainpower well!
When you say they have been told 11 other times this is very misleading! Some of these complaints consisted of sending packets to dead people and people already registered to vote. It was not 11 times of the same thing.
Julia Louise-Dreyfus' statement on WVWV:
A POINT OF CLARIFICATION
Recently I was part of a group of women who filmed public service announcements for an organization called Women's Voices. Women Vote.
The goal of the PSA campaign is to encourage high voter turn-out amongst women,especially single women, 20 million of whom have been known to stay home on Election Day. It is an issue about which I am deeply passionate. However,
there have been reports about WVWV which questioned the intention behind my PSA and which candidate I am endorsing for president. For the record, I am proudly supporting Senator Barack Obama.
The news reports came about because there was evidence that an individual or a small group of individuals affiliated with WVWV may have issued misleading robo-calls in North Carolina designed to suppress voter turnout in African American neighborhoods. I find these activities appalling and hope WVWV will immediately disassociate themselves from such individuals and denounce such
actions.
I am not affiliated with WVWV in any way other than participating in this PSA campaign, and I debated whether to ask WVWV to pull my PSA from their website. In the end, I realized the message of the PSA is more important than the actions of some its members. Every woman, 18 or older, should exercise their right to vote for the candidate and the issues they believe in. As women, we are a powerful voting block. But that does not mean we will automatically align with female candidates.
My spot was set in a replica of the Oval Office and entitled "Who Do You Want in Here?" This was meant as a legitimate question, not to serve as an endorsement for a particular candidate. The PSA was meant to inspire women to vote regardless of their party or their position. The PSA, like me, is
not pro-Clinton, but rather pro-women. And yes, you can be both.
>>Page Gardner, the president and founder of the organization has spent her life trying to help ensure that underrepresented Americans are able to have a voice and a say in American political processes.<<
And her husband's company has made millions and millions and millions of dollars because of her efforts.
Nice gig if you can get it.
Gillet, I'm afraid your justifications of WVWV's action are flat-out inane. You say we have this "COMPLETELY" wrong, and yet you misleadingly claim that they're targeting unmarried women with their activities.
The 182,236 calls within North Carolina alone were NOT targeted at unmarried women. They told Daily Kos that they called men with the Lamont Williams call and women with some other (as yet unidentified and unheard) female call.
You're out there defending the good intentions of this group without having the basic facts about their activities in North Carolina or their active efforts to cover up their activities, including in blog comments, via planted articles in Colorado, and a completely BS article in salon.com about their NC activities.
If it WAS just massive ineptitude, they still haven't explained WHO they targeted with their calls, how they got their phone numbers (Kevin Farmer suggests it was the Democratic Party's REGISTERED VOTER database), why they used the name Lamont Williams (instead of, say, a celebrity), how many households they contacted last week in their other 22 states, and far, far more.
We may never get this full accounting, but at this point, their BEST defense is massive incompetence on every level of the organization, including their well regarded president, Page Gardner, who must be relieved of her responsibilities immediately.
And Shaun, please cut it out. You're going all over the internet claiming there's no "there" there when clearly there IS some "there" there. I'd love to listen to another example you have of a non-profit robocall that doesn't even identify the group placing the call? I'm sure, given your work on this, that you should be able to provide a link to one right away. Also, if they have the effect of causing doubt in registered voters as to their registration status, I would hope each instance of this comes to light immediately.
But yeah - examples, please?
Gillet:
You assert these are good people, with good intentions, who have done really good work in the past.
Board members like John Podesta also make that the core of their defence of WVWV: How can anyone suspect such lifelong progressives?
Mostly because they have behaved from the start like people who have something to hide. Specific questions about the robocalls have gone unanswered, while the group intead focused on creating a paper trail to suggest it had liaised with the elections board beforehand.
This cover-your-ass approach is what we have come to expect from those who really are guilty.
Even WVWV's own statement, quoted above, concedes the sense of suspicion is "not unreasonable."
Why, then, didn't WVWV move immediately to find out what went wrong, and explain it publicly, to allay those suspicions?
Instead, we got Podesta announcing there would be a full accounting "to the board of directors."
This is a public scandal, involving alleged illegalities, and a formal complaint by the NAACP.
And the organization thinks it can make do with an internal investigation? How tone-deaf is that?
A week after this broke, WVWV is still dismissing the whole uproar as a "misunderstanding."
Since the group has so abjectly failed to clear up that misunderstanding, I guess we will have to wait for the North Carolina attorney general to do a proper investigation.
Perhaps, in the best-case scenario, we will learn that the WVWV is merely hopelessly incompetent and in no way malicious.
But try to understand: This crisis is not something brought on WVWV by ill-informed critics. The group has brought this on itself.
I just posted a very long article about the WVWV cover up on Daily Kos. It involves their bizarre press releases. Note that the NC press release, which was undated and nowhere to be found on their website, has now been posted in their Press Release section, dated Monday, April 28.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/4/195617/7630/473/509054
The main problem being that in Page Gardner's Huffington Post article, she made it seem like the press release was sent out the prior week, which is why it was undated!
Entities investigating themselves always get to the bottom of stuff. The Republicans say so. Then they also say how dare you impugn the investigators for they are beyond reproach. Cause we know em, see. Play golf. Pray together.
Crap. Voter caging voter caging voter caging.
Kitchen f--king sink indeed.
Jonathan, clarification: I did not suggest that WVWV is/was using the Dem Party database. So far as I know, they use Catalist, which was developed by Harold Ickes, and not Votebuilder.
I looked up the number in question in the Dem Party database and found an entry. That was the information I provided in my last post, proof, at least, that the number is out there and associated with the name of a registered voter, but not proof as to source. Everybody gets their data from the BOE and adds their own bells and whistles, correlation-wise.
Oddly enough, received two more robo-calls at that number in the last two days. One more from the Obama campaign, and one from the Jim Wynn campaign (NC Court of Appeals). Judge Wynn will be very happy to know that his campaign people know how to properly query the database.
Chris, a voter contacted me awhile back because she received a partially completed registration form. The form came from "the Voter Participation Center", a project of Women’s Voices. Women Vote. I found this link for that group/offshoot of WVWV http://www.voterparticipationcenter.org/voting.html
There's a letter to the editor of a newspaper about this, the voter was more worried about voter id laws than the fact that they received this registration form. However its interesting that this organization just mass mails these out without regard to the person's registration status. Certainly keeps our election officials busy, and voters confused.
Friday, March 28, 2008
In the last month, I have received, through the mail, two requests to register to vote from the Voter Participation Center in Boston, Mass. This has caused me some consternation as I am already registered to vote in North Carolina. I called the Pasquotank Board of Elections in Elizabeth City to make sure I was still on their list of eligible voters, and I am. So, why the mailed requests to try to get me registered to vote?
Turns out, these voter registration requests are from a nonprofit trying to get unregistered voters registered to vote. I was on their mailing list in error. North Carolina does not require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote, only proof of residence. My concern is that under the current rules individuals who are not citizens — illegal immigrants or people with visas or green cards — could vote in our local, state and national elections.
Given the present political activity of certain groups for amnesty for illegal immigrants and for open borders, I would encourage all of you to write or call your local, state and federal representatives and ask them to pass laws that require proof of citizenship in order to be registered to vote.
CORDY LAVERY
Elizabeth City
http://www.dailyadvance.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/2008/03/28/0320editLaveryLet.html
there's a DISCREPANCY between the calls to women and the "Lamont Williams" calls to blacks.
Both robocalls ask the listener to return the voter registration forms, but the calls to African Americans go farther, by also saying: "Then you will be able to vote and make your voice heard." This means that the calls to AAs are nefarious because the recipients are more likely to think that they can not currently vote, while the call that went to women never implies that the recipient is currently unable to vote. To summarize, women would, who were already registered, would have been more likely to think that this call was simply an error, while African Americans would have been more likely to think that that they could not vote because of the inclusion of this additional phrase. Of course, I'm willing to bet $100 that the respective "outreach efforts" to women and African Americans had other significant differences as well.
It would appear to be the world's biggest coincidence.
Does WVWV press releases explain how the exact same thing happened in Ohio in 2007?
buckeyestateblog.com /voter_suppression_in_columbus
The same calls happened a few days before the Ohio 2007 general election. "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."
Page Gardener, CEO and President of WVWV, will be on my podcast tonight to address these allegations.
For more details, go to
Black women Vote
Post a Comment
Return to Facing South's main page