Americans Away From Home

A group with ties to Clinton is making robo-calls that confuse voters, possibly aiming at suppressing voting in N. Carolina. The N. Carolina Attorney General says the calls are illegal, according to National Public Radio.

The group made similar calls in Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and four other states over the past five months. The Virginia state police investigated robo-calls just before the Virginia primary.

The Institute for Southern Studies in Durham, N. Carolina, has gotten complaints about the robo-calls, and investigated. That led them to the group, Women's Voices Women Vote. Chris Kromm, the Institute's director, says, "Each time this group is criticized for this activity, they apologize for the confusion."

The leaders of Women's Voices mostly have ties to Hillary Clinton and her campaign, although there are some Obama backers among the leadership, according to the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Maggie Williams, Clinton's campaign manager, used to be on the Women's Voices leadership team, and did consulting for them. Board member John Podesta was President Clinton's chief of staff. Founder Page Gardner worked on Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign. Women's Voices Women Vote is a 501 C-3 charity.

Here's what the robo-calls say. This one went out in N. Carolina last week:

"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 the application. Then you will be able to vote and make your voice heard. Please return your registration form when it arrives.
Thank you."

It was past the deadline to register. The call went to many registered voters, already expecting to vote in next Tuesday's primary. The call, and follow-up mailings, made many people wonder if they were registered or not, and would be permitted to vote. The calls seemed to be aimed at African-American communities, places where Obama is expected to win easily, according to the NPR report. It appeared to be an example of sowing confusion to suppress voter turnout.

The N. Carolina Attorney General says the robo-calls are illegal because state law requires automated calls to identify the sponsoring group and give a way for people being called to reach the group, neither of which was done in these phone calls.

276,000 mailers from Women's Voices are being pulled from the postal stream by Democracy North Carolina, a fair-elections group, working with Women's Voices.

Last week, Page Gardner wrote to let the N. Carolina elections board know about the calls and the mailing. She said it was an "unfortunate coincidence" that Women's Voices would be raising the voter registration question just before the primary, and said she hoped it wouldn't be confusing, according to NPR.

Why don't U.S. election laws specifically outlaw all attempts to interfere with voter turnout, and in particular, where found to do so by the Attorney General of a state involved?

What's confusing to me is: how many dirty tricks like this will be caught before they have the desired effect by people pulling them?   (NPR story here)

Carole