Intimidating Maine voters, from the shadows
Whoever used a state database of personal records to mail subtle threats to Maine's electorate remains a mystery ... though there are tantalizing clues.
Before Election Day, many Mainers received an ominous postcard in the mail that claimed to show whether their friends and neighbors had voted in past elections, and included a veiled threat that they too could be exposed if they didn’t do their civic duty and vote.
The threatening mailers angered some Mainers, but exactly who sent them remains a mystery. It also is a mystery – even to state elections officials – how the group apparently got hold of the state’s confidential voter database, access to which is limited by law.
The mailings also show how political strategists are continually finding new ways to exploit “keyholes” in campaign finance and communications laws in Maine and other states.
No group has accepted responsibility for the mailers circulated in Maine. But an important clue can be found across the continent in Alaska.
Voters in Alaska received a nearly identical letter – right down to the font type, the wording and the logo, which can easily be mistaken for an official state seal. The Alaska letter, however, left a single breadcrumb: a disclaimer from a super political action committee funded primarily by a retired chemical company executive in Oregon who is closely linked to industrialists Charles and David Koch, two of the most prolific funders of the modern conservative movement.
http://www.pressherald.com/2014/11/16/intimidating-maine-voters-from-the-shadows/