Beware: Last Minute GOP Dirty Tricks
Robocalling. This is the Republicans’ favorite sleaze weapon as the campaign enters the final hours. Republican dirty tricksters are sending robocalls (automated phone calls) to Democratic voters.
Sometimes these robocalls will be “informing” Democratic voters of a last-minute change of address for the local polling place. The address is incorrect, of course, and the voter will hopefully be too confused to find the right address and will be tricked out of voting.
Other times, robocallers will pretend to be a local Democratic candidate. They will repeatedly call the same voters over and over and over. The goal is to infuriate voters and have them thinking “that’s the 13th call I’ve gotten from Nancy Pelosi in the last four hours. That does it! I’m not voting for her!”
These dictator wannabes are getting more desperate by the hour. They know what will happen if they lose either the House or the Senate — investigations, resignations, possible jail terms. They’re determined to maintain their grip, and they’ll do anything — ANYTHING — to stay in power.
Vote!
posted by Tom Harper @ 4:56 PM
13 Comments:
Amazing that tactics like that are tolerated. In most democracies, such fraudulent conduct would be illegal and lead to elections being voided and having to be rerun. Of course, that, and proving it has happened are slightly different. Seems to me that the US electoral system needs a good cleanup - is there any independent oversight of how elections are conducted (by someone other than partisan officials)?
yea, I got one at 6am this morning.
I can imagine what must be happening in the swing states and tight race districts.
filthy scumbags..
Everyone: Get out and vote! Vote early and often!
the strangest thing happened when I voted today.
I was using an electronic machine.
Using the touchscreen, I chose the democratic candidate.
After I did, the republican candidates name came up on the display.
Followed by the words, "Bwaa haa haa."
You can't make this stuff up, folks.
Living In Canberra: I’m sure these activities are illegal; they just have to be proven. Just recently somebody got convicted of some sort of dirty trick in New Hampshire in either 2000 or 2002. I think they were either hacking a Democratic website or sabotaging their phone calls; I forget. But the fact that some underling might get jail several years later doesn’t seem to be much of a deterrent. There have been rumblings about international monitoring of this election, but I don’t know if there will be or not. I think there are thousands of lawyers on hand, ready to investigate any claims of fraud or intimidation. I hope we don’t need them but I’m glad they’re there.
Mike: Uh oh, you got one of those calls? And now you’re gonna vote Republican, right :)
Dr. Blogstein: Damn right. I like the “often” part. I sure wish I could do that.
I.M. Dedd: God I hate when that happens.
What happened to I.M. Dedd will probably happen to millions of Democratic voters today.
I will be relieved when the election results are finalized, but it might be a while before we know who really won in a bunch of races...
Snave: I agree, I'll be relieved (that isn't even the word) when this whole thing is over. And I sure hope we're not left dangling in mid-air for several weeks, waiting to find out who controls the House.
I kind of like the voting by mail; it's the only kind of voting my county does now. You don't have to worry about getting to the polls or fickle machines. You get mailed a ballot well ahead of time and it just needs to be postmarked on election day at the latest. So I already voted several days ago.
Booklover: Where I live (Clallam County, WA) all voting is done through the mail. From what I understand, all of Washington is paper ballots. They're not foolproof (neither is snail mail) but it's better than worrying about whether a computer glitch or a hacker can make thousands of votes disappear.
Looks to me like whatever tricks the GOP may have tried, voters were wise. Tester took Montana, and it looks like if Webb can maintain his lead in Virginia and survive the inevitable recount there, the left will control BOTH House and Senate.
Seeing the Dems take the House is wonderful! If they can get the Senate too, it will be icing on the cake. Add that to Ronald Dumsfeld's resignation today, and I'd say Bush will have to stand down... he and his neocon buddies are at least going to have to negotiate with the Democrats now. It's about time...
What other good things can happen? Can Anne Coulter end up doing jail time for knowingly voting where she shouldn't have been? Will Bill O'Reilly get in trouble for the Kansas abortion records flap? Maybe while the radical righties are at it, a few more ministers will fess up to gay sex or extramarital affairs, Sean Hannity will hit on hard times, and Rush Limbaugh will be committed to an insane asylum. The right hasn't thoroughly imploded, but they have certainly given a lot of their power over to the Democrats. The GOP meltdown is what won it for the Dems, now they need to prove they can do a good job. I believe they can, and that they will.
Mostly happy days are here again!
Whatever happens now,
Things are looking up big time!
Snave: Yup, it looks like there just weren't enough dirty tricks in the world for them to stay in power. Is this a great country or what? And buh bye to Dumsfeld. I hope he's the first of many to resign or get fired.
The Democrats have a 2-year probation period. If they misuse it they'll be right back out on the street again.
Glyn (Zaphod) Evans: Yeah! They're looking up, up and up. Now you won't have to worry quite so much about your crazy Southern neighbor.
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