The dirty tricks are starting even earlier than usual this year. According to the Philadelphia Daily News, “An anonymous flier circulating in African-American neighborhoods in North and West Philadelphia states that voters who are facing outstanding arrest warrants or who have unpaid traffic tickets may be arrested at the polls on Election Day.”
The Daily News goes on to note that “Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Everett Gillison, who learned of the flier last week, said that the message is completely false.”
Here’s the misleading, dirty tricks flier…
The information seen above is an old, and venerable trick meant to scare Democrats, usually African-Americans, away from the the voting booth. We’ll likely see much more of it — and the variation of it, fliers that “inform” voters that Democrats are supposed to vote on Wednesday — between now and November 4th.
A few similar dirty tricks fliers that were circulated in 2004, in Wisconsin and Ohio, are reposted below as a reminder…
(I had another one almost identical to the above from Ohio ’04, I believe it pretended to be from Auglaize County, which used the telltale “DEMOCRAT” instead of “DEMOCRATIC”, but having trouble finding it for the moment…)
Brad,
a friend sent me this as well – with so many new Obama silkscreens floating around these days it’s sort of an oddly relevant point:
PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE ADVISE EVERYONE YOU KNOW THAT THEY ABSOLUTELY CAN NOT GO TO THE POLLS WEARING ANY OBAMA SHIRTS, PINS OR HATS.
IT IS AGAINST THE LAW AND WILL BE GROUNDS TO HAVE THE POLLING OFFICIALS TO TURN YOU AWAY.
It can be CONSIDERED CAMPAIGNING AND NO ONE CAN CAMPAIGN WITHIN 100 FEET of THE POLLS.
THEY ARE BANKING ON US BEING EXCITED AND NOT BEING AWARE OF THIS LONG STANDING LAW THAT YOU CAN BET WILL BE ENFORCED THIS YEAR!
THEY ARE BANKING THAT IF YOU’RE TURNED AWAY YOU WILL NOT GO HOME AND CHANGE YOUR CLOTHES AND COME BACK … PLEASE JUST DON’T WEAR OBAMA GEAR OF ANY SORTS TO THE POLLS!
PLEASE SHARE THIS INFORMATION, OH AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE ALREADY AWARE THIS WAS NOT MEANT TO INSULT YOUR INTELLIGENCE.
JUST TRYING TO COVER ALL GROUNDS.>>
This was from a retired African-American journalist.
MTK –
That email is a scam as well. Though not as much as the ones posted above. See this for more details on your email.
The email is hoax, but how many well-meaning but low-information poll workers in contentious swing states will know there is no problem with folks wearing campaign memorabilia when they go to vote?
How many challengers will be laying/lying in wait for victims to challenge at the precinct level, to take advantage of the voters’ and pollworkers’ lack of knowledge about the rules on clothing? It only takes a few wrenches thrown in the works here and there to create long lines and other distractions that get in the way of people actually voting.
There should be a “counter flyer” which says someone spoke to the McCain-Bush campaign and wants us to put out a flyer all over America to warn Karl Rove, Harriet Miers and all the other Bush administration officials to NOT show up at polling places because they might be hauled away in chains.
At least it’s partialy true!
I wonder where Ann Coulter will be voting and whether anyone will notice.
I hope the Attorney General in the applicable state is investigating…prosecuting…That is the only way it will stop!
Brad:
I don’t understand how you mean “scam” here.
From the link it seems that the email is about whether or not people at the precinct level can “get away” with intimidation and harassment such as “passive electioneering”.
In fact the link you sent suggests carrying extra clothes and etc. since the local officil may be unobserved and capable of this voter suppression.
It is weird that the text is so specifically the same. But isn’t that from lots of fwd.ing?
WRH’s Rivero points to the Cointelpro fbi habits of writing these in the past as being manifest by repub operatives today, and we have the clear evidence of the tactic agaist McCain in South Carolina back in 2000 by Rove on behalf of Bush …
but in this case, isn’t the warning valid? I mean to say, “Don’t wear Obama promotional material because some foul-playing Republican poll worker might try to hassle you? I don’t see the scam there …
Hey Brad, this is off topic, but just wanted to tell you that I was pleased to catch you on the Tavis Smiley show tonight on NPR radio, and I thought you did a great job. The Republican dude sure was annoying with his disinformation and the way he kept trying to make it about “voter-fraud”. You handled him pretty well I thought, and you would have been better if Smiley had let you. Smiley sure was under-informed on these issues. He should know better.
Keep up the good work.
In the love of truth,
John
John
Thanks for reminding me! I’m listening right now online.
Brad!
YOU ROCK!!!!!!
Brad,
I wanted to applaude your efforts at addressing an issue that has been a serious threat to this country for far too long. The attack on our elections are the most serious threat to our democracy that has ever taken place, even more serious that any attack that has led to war. For those who would say this is overstating this issue, I would respond that your ignorance is part of the reason it continues to occur; refusing to inform yourselves, even when another warns you of the existence of these issues/threats, is the trojan horse being used, to perpetrate them. We, as citizens of the greatest democracy in history, are being attacked from within, and if we do not fight back, are at risk of losing what so many others died protecting. We must remember that our democracy/republic is not something that can be just taken for granted; it’s not just simply going to always exist, and I suspect that if we, as citizens, continue with this apathy, in regard to this, we will lose it. The battle has long started, and those who wish to destroy this gift have a huge head start. But we have great equalizers to this, and your effort is a shining example of that. I look forward to viewing more of your work, and pray that your energy sustains you, in this most serious battle. This cannot be more serious. Our lives, as we know them to be, are at risk. It is obvious that you understand this, and I sincerely thank you for all of your efforts.
In addition the obvious hoaxes, the Rupublic Party operatives are going to continue to have poll workers demand to see photo ID – even where this is clearly not required by law.
The ONLY way they can defeat Obama is through voter fraud the GOP way – delay, deny or derail valid voters from going to the polls.
It has worked before…but this time, many of us are aware of the con, and how it is played.
just testing to see if I can post
Someone in Florida mentioned a scheme to buy people’s votes. I met this person on the OBAMA blog. Everytime I post things regarding election fraud, she is one of those ‘lets’ just cover this up or we will disenfranchise the new voters. Kind of like Santa Claus isn’t real. Well, in this case Santa Claus is real. At any rate, she won’t tell me any more about the purchase offer.
Jack
When you are posting allegations like that, it is wise to provide links as proof. We try really hard to keep the mountains of disinformation off this blog. Please read our RULES FOR COMMENTING AT BRAD BLOG and, seriously, go back and get the link/s for your allegation or you are already in hot water.
But your little testing post implies you already know all this….
A picture sure does paint a thousand words …
Could somebody be kind enough to put this on the Voter Suppression Wiki’s incident tracker? Thanks!
jon
oops, ignore previous message; it’s already there.
(and thanks to whoever just updated the page!)
As to the advertising problem a simple fix mite be to just turn the t-shirt inside out
These fliers are nothing compared to the fraud committed by ACORN workers who are paid to submit fraudulent voter registrations. Funny how Obama trained these people in Chicago and with taxpayer money, contribute to his candidacy.
That’s not intimidation””it’s true in some places. Here in Virginia, it’s absolutely the law. It’s considered campaigning within the no-campaigning forty-foot perimeter. We’ve had that problem for years. In 2004, enough people were turned away that some friends and I gathered up coats to make available at our precinct, so people could cover up. One woman, before we arrived, voted with nothing on up top but her bra. My wife and I are gathering up spare sweatshirts and coats for our precinct this year.
Obviously, it’s a bullshit law, but it’s enforced, and it’s a real problem.