Calls From State Republican Party Tell Voters Of Non-Existent Changes To Polling Place Locations...
Blogged by John Gideon
UPDATE: See the update at the end of this article describing the injunction now received from a New Mexico judge enjoining the Republican party in the state from making phone calls to non-Republican voters in the wake of what appears to be wide-spread dirty tricks in the state, aimed at Hispanic voters by the GOP.
The following email has been sent to various listservs by the party who received these phone calls. It is only one complaint from one party but it is probably indicative of phone calls made to hundreds of voters in the state of New Mexico. Everyone needs to be wary of any phone calls alerting them to last minute changes of polling places. Call your county to find out if there are any changes and then call 1-866-OUR-VOTE and report the incident:
Yesterday (11/04), about 1pm MST, I rec'd a phone message from the
Republican Party of NM telling me that my polling location was John Adams
Middle School. My polling place is usually Longfellow Elementary about 1
block away. John Adams is about 7 1/2 miles away. In my horror and disgust
I quickly deleted the message.
Thinking that maybe my polling place changed, I then called the **Republican
Party** here and simply asked if they could tell me my polling place. They
asked my address only, I told them, and they said, "You vote at Longfellow."
This is correct and I hung up.
About 5pm MST, the Republican Party of NM called AGAIN and left a message
telling me that my election day polling place was West Mesa High School,
even further away than John Adams. They gave the full address and zip code.
My Caller ID shows "REPUBLICAN PART." I DID NOT DELETE THIS MESSAGE.
Then around 7pm MST, the same thing happened. The Republican Party of NM
called and left a message telling me that my election day polling place was
back to John Adams Middle School. My Caller ID shows "NEW MEXICO VICT." I
did a Google search on the phone number and this entry came up:
New Mexico Republican Party :: CalendarSummary:,
Contact your local county party or call the Victory Office
at (505) XXX-XXXX to find out what you can do to
help our 2006 Republican candidates. ...
I DID NOT DELETE THIS MESSAGE.
If you want the actual phone numbers, I can give them to you.
I've heard that this has been happening in other parts of the country, and I
want to help get the word out that it's happening in NM. I called TV news
stations, contacted the newspapers, and progressive talk show hosts. I'm
warning people to be on the lookout. Please help me spread the word.
Follow-up: The aggrieved party contacted DNC attorneys who got an injunction against the state Republican party to stop them from giving polling location information to non-Republican voters. There is thought that voters with Hispanic surnames were targeted.
The judge who issued the injunction via cell-phone while she was at a basketball game, has scheduled a hearing for tomorrow. The Dems need to have more voters who will step forward and join in the lawsuit.
NOTE: We will follow-up with contact information for the attorneys just as soon as we can get it.
UPDATE BY John Gideon 5:25PM: Any aggrieved New Mexico voter is encouraged to contact attorney John Boyd at 505-842-9960.
UPDATE BY John Gideon 8:45AM: We have just been contacted about the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) that we reported was issued last evening. In fact that TRO was withdrawn by the judge after the Republican Party of New Mexico called and claimed that the phone calls were just "innocent mistakes". There is no injunction or any other decision at this time. It is being reported that a judge will hold a hearing at 10:30 local time this morning. It is also being reported that the "innocent mistake" was also made with at least six people who have stepped forward.
In an article on this issue from the Santa Fe New Mexican and the Associated Press the following is reported:
What Ms. Kramer fails to explain is who made the two phone calls from the GOP offices that followed the incident she reports. An "innocent mistake" once, but three times it is no longer "innocent" or a "mistake".