Fake Robo Calls, Push Polls, Dumping Absentee Ballots and Other Republican Dirty Tricks

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/11/06/fake-robo-calls-push-polls-dumping-absentee-ballots-and-other-republican-dirty-tricks/

Fake Robo Calls, Push Polls, Dumping Absentee Ballots and Other Republican Dirty Tricks

by James Parks, Nov 6, 2006

In a desperate effort to hold on to power, the Republican Party is unleashing a frenzied assortment of dirty tricks aimed at depressing the Democratic vote.

In the latest attack, Republicans are bombarding Democratic voters with misleading and false “robo calls.” Here how it works, according to G2geek on Daily Kos:

Your phone rings, there’s a brief recorded intro that makes it appear the call is from a Democratic campaign or related group, and then a pause, and then a recorded message. If you hang up, it calls you back six or seven times or more. The goal is to make people think they are being harassed by the Democrats, and piss them off enough to change their votes. It works well enough to potentially flip some close races.

In Florida’s 13th Congressional District, Democrat Christine Jennings issued a statement condemning calls being made in her race district. Some voters are receiving as many as 10 calls per night. Many of these robo-calls impersonate Jennings’ voice and create the impression that she is the person speaking. The calls are so long (they sometimes last several minutes) that few people listen to them all the way to the end, where they would hear that the calls are paid for by her opponent Vern Buchanan or the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

Matt Stoller on MyDD writes that the practice is widespread. He cites a campaign against Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.):

Initially callers will think they are hearing a call from the Menendez campaign asking for support. If they hang up, it will repeatedly call them back. The intention is to annoy the voter so much that they no longer support the candidate. For those who actually listen to the entire call, they are presented with a series of lies and smears against Menendez, also with the intention of suppressing turnout.

The NRCC is doing the same exact thing in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and at least 53 other races across the country.

In New Hampshire, the Union Leader reports the NRCC over the weekend pulled the pre-recorded phone calls after the state Attorney General’s Office said the maneuver has violated New Hampshire law by contacting residents listed on the federal Do Not Call Registry.

The National Republican Congressional Committee voluntarily agreed to stop making automated calls to homes on the registry, said Deputy Attorney General Bud Fitch, who oversees election law. Under state statute, political campaigns are allowed to contact people on the Do Not Call list, but cannot use automated recordings to do so.

FULL long article at link above.

[mcscajun]

1. Another dirty trick I heard about this evening at Morris County NJ

Democratic HQ: calling Democratic voters at 5:00 AM! pretending that the calls are from US!

:grr:

May they all burn in hell, the lying bastards.