Multi state, Clinton linked vote suppression operation targets black voters.

[EFerrari]

Cross posted from GDP :

Facing South has confirmed the source of the calls, and the mastermind is Women's Voices Women Vote, a D.C.-based nonprofit which aims to boost voting among "unmarried women voters."

What's more, Facing South has learned that the firestorm Women's Voices has ignited in North Carolina isn't the group's first brush with controversy. Women's Voices' questionable tactics have spawned thousands of voter complaints in at least 11 states and brought harsh condemnation from some election officials for their secrecy, misleading nature and likely violations of election law.

Yesterday, I placed a call to the Virginia State Police, which had investigated similar suspicious robo-calls before that Virginia's primaries last February. Their investigation concluded that the source of the calls was Women's Voices Women Vote.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=5751417&mesg_id=5751417

Here's the direct link to DKos: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/30/11055/6499/141/506343

/oops

[havocmom]

1. We need to make sure civics and government are required in all high schools again

The lack of basic understanding of how things are SUPPOSED to work in America has left us with a huge population that is too easily lied to and taken advantage of. Democracy cannot exist if the population is not aware.

Tar and feathers for those who employ such despicable tactics to confuse people and suppress the vote. A good chiding for all of us for allowing such sad lack of understanding within our society that this shit would work.

[EFerrari]

5. I think BushCo has dismembered our infrastructure on purpose.

It hampers us from doing much more than mailing in our taxes. :shrug:

[havocmom]

7. The RW got their fundy base running for school boards back in the 70s & 80s for a reason

They got to set the curriculum and lower standards/expectations while diverting the public from the destruction of public education by making a lot of silly noise about prayer and other hot button but irrelevant issues.

They have dumbed down the population while TV/mass marketing have hypnotized and enslaved a huge part of the adults.

We can't fix anything until we have an educated, aware population. That takes a vital and FREE press.

In other words: we're screwn

[Lady-Damai]

2. Hillary will do *anything* to win. n/t

[John Q. Citizen]

3. Look at this:

There are other questions about Women's Voices' outreach efforts. Although the group purports to be targeting "unmarried women," their calls and mailings don't fit the profile. Kevin Farmer in Durham, who first recorded the call, is a white male. Many of the recipients are African-American; Rev. Nelson Johnson, who is a married, male and African-American, reported that his house was called four times by the mysterious "Lamont Williams."

And as Farmer asks, "Why are they using a guy for the calls if the target audience is single women?"

Some have also questioned the ties between Women's Voices operatives and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton. Gardner, for example, contributed $2,500 to Clinton's HILLPAC on May 4, 2006, and in March 2005 she donated a total of $4,200 to Clinton, according to The Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org. She has not contributed to the Obama campaign, according to the database.

Women's Voices Executive Director Joe Goode worked for Bill Clinton's election campaign in 1992 as a pollster; the group's website says he was intimately involved in "development and implementation of all polling and focus groups done for the presidential primary and general election campaigns" for Clinton.

Women's Voices board member John Podesta, former Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton, donated $2,300 to Hillary Clinton on April 19, 2007, according to OpenSecrets.org. Podesta also donated $1,000 to Barack Obama in July 2004, but that was well before Obama announced his candidacy for president.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/4/30/11055/6499/141/506343



Senator Clinton will say and do anything to get power. Even disenfranchise voters if it suits her purposes

[EFerrari]

4. More than slamming that campaign, HOW DO WE GET THE DATABASE?

That's what I want to know. We could learn a lot about vote suppression from such a document.

[John Q. Citizen]

8. Very true. I imagine it would take a law suit, and during discovery phase that could be subpoenaed

[EFerrari]

9. Somebody needs to call Podesta and ask him how he feels

about helping to suppress black votes. The least he could do is fork over the database to an election reform group.

[Aloha Spirit]

10. I like this idea.

[Aloha Spirit]

11. Here's a start

Center for American Progress
1333 H Street NW
10th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20005
202-682-1611
Fax: [phone]

[EFerrari]

19. Thanks. I may have to call these folks.

On the other hand, it might be more effective if a representative of an established ER group contacted them.

[Aloha Spirit]

14. Here's his Georgetown University contact info.

Phone
202-662-9534
Email
[e-mail]

[papau]

12. Vote suppression - nonsense to the point of smear about a poorly run legitamate voter registration

The voter-registration application contained in the packet is a legitimate voter-registration form

[John Q. Citizen]

15. Poorly run by Clinton appointees? Imagine that. The impact is to confuse voters.

Why?

[papau]

21. read KOS - he's as big an Obama supporter as any here

[EFerrari]

17. I'm sure this is just a big misunderstanding. A really big one.

[cbayer]

25. Statement released by WVWV today.

http://www.wvwv.org/2008/4/30/mail-registration

[EFerrari]

6. Direct link to FacingSouth:

http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/04/facing-south-exclusive-dc-nonprofit.asp

[papau]

16. Seems my take that this is nonsenses/smear is felt by other commentors at the site

AS POSTED AT THE SITE

This is nonsense amounting to yet another smear of Hillary by an Obama supporter - this is a poorly run voter registration effort by - as KOS noted - GOOD PEOPLE - The voter-registration application contained in the packet is a legitimate voter-registration form good hard working citizens with excellent reputations.

It is indeed poorly run - on a shoestring budget that does not allow the lawyers triple check for errors as to registration or file cut off dates. No where in your smear do you note the rather important fact that the voter-registration application contained in the packet is a legitimate voter-registration form.

[EFerrari]

18. Yep. And vote caging is really just protecting against voter fraud.

Got it.

[papau]

20. Vote caging means voter suppression - and this is an attempt at the opposite

[EFerrari]

22. Oh, I know what vote caging means. I also know that wherever

you find a "legitimate" voter fraud operation, you find vote caging. But see, it was legitimate.

[John Q. Citizen]

23. Yes, repeatedly confusing voters right before the primary in multiple states is noble.

Especially when it appears to break state law.

You should send this group some money and help them confuse more voters, for their own good.

Hillary would love you for it.

[EFerrari]

26. A poster claimiing to be from wvwv posted @ TPM:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/nonprofit_womens_voices_women.php

[John Q. Citizen]

27. It's truly amazing that the poster claims it was a screw up. Who else are getting these robo calls

besides voters in states right before their primary?

Who blocked the caller ID?

Why target single women with a male caller?

I hope a grand jury looks into this.

And as more info comes to light, I'll be sending this information to my states uncommitted super delegates. And ask them what they think of this operation.

edited to add- Thanks for the link, by the way. The poster know as sarahwvwv won't answer any of the relevant questions being asked, and a lot of them are quite good questions.

[marions ghost]

28. what boggles my mind

is how we're supposed to believe it's a "mistake" to send 270,000 registration forms to voters AFTER the deadline. ANYBODY who knows about elections and cares about voters would know that this is not ethical and could be worse than not sending the forms at all.

The 'oops we're sorry' defense is just so insulting.

[EFerrari]

29. The NC AG is looking into it and the networks have partially picked up

the story.

But I agree. These people are terrible liars and maybe this year, too many people know what they're looking at.

[marions ghost]

31. crossing fingers...we need to get to the bottom of this...

maybe the truth will out. After Bushcon Dark Night the public is a bit less gullible. I'm picking up on that everywhere.

[Wilms]

24. Papau, I need help with a financial transaction.

You see, I have claim to 1 million dollars but need $50,000 in order to get it from the bank.

Complicating things, is that I'm in Nigeria right now.

So if you'd send me the $50,000, I'll give it back to you with an reward for for $100,000. That's $150,000 for you since we're such "good citizens" and "hardworking", (LOL!) Ah hem, I mean...

To expedite things, please send all your personal data including SS#, and all credit card and bank account numbers and passwords.

OK???

And don't forget to vote. Clinton Supporters report to the polls on Tuesday. Obama supporters should vote the following day after 7PM. Got that?

Good!

[OnTheOtherHand]

30. .

http://www.scamorama.com/mallory-head2.html

[mod mom]

32. Paul Kiel over at TPM Muckraker has excellent coverage and they are certainly NOT

Obama supporters.

A couple questions: if this group is aiding single woman as the groups says, then why is the voice of "Lamont Williams" reminiscent of James Earl Jones? Wouldn't you think they would use a woman's voice? Why are Af Am men receiving call? Just an odd coincidence?

Robo Call Gives False Voting Info to North Carolina Voters
By Paul Kiel - April 29, 2008, 3:48PM

Here's another for the annals of vote suppression. Calls have gone out to an untold number of North Carolina voters telling them that they need to fill out a registration form before they vote. Democracy North Carolina, a government watchdog that has posted audio (wav) of the call, says that the calls went out to "black neighborhoods."

It seems not to be a scheme limited to North Carolina. As Facing South reports, the same call evidently went out to some voters in Columbus, Ohio two days before municipal elections there last November, and also in Virginia the week before the Democratic primary there this February.

Here's how one reader of the Buckeye State Blog described the Ohio call back in November:
From memory, a stentorian voice reminiscent of James Earl Jones says: "Hello. This is Lamont Williams. In a few days you should be getting a voter registration form in the mail. Please fill it out and return promptly and you will be able to vote. Thank you."

Since the election is Tuesday, the message is nonsensical. Also, I can't find any information on this Lamont Williams. The caller ID was blocked ("unknown caller").

-snip
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/robo_call_gives_false_voting_i.php


?North Carolina AG Opens Investigation of Robo Calls
By Paul Kiel - April 30, 2008, 6:22PM

And yet another development on those calls by Women's Voices Women Vote.

North Carolina's attorney general has just put out a press release (pdf) saying that he's investigating the calls and taking credit for having them stopped. "Regardless of the motivation, the robo-calls violated the law and they needed to stop," Roy Cooper said. He also includes a correspondence with the group's lawyer. In the letter, Cooper requests a variety of information about the calls.

Sarah Johnson, the group's spokeswoman declined to comment on the correspondence, referring questions to the group's lawyer. But she did say that the calls occurred last Thursday and Friday in North Carolina as they did in all the other 24 states (pdf) targeted by the group this April.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/north_carolina_ag_opens_invest.php

[MarjorieG]

13. Add to that Rendell's voting machine breakdowns and allocation like in Ohio long lines and votes.

[EFerrari]

33. Update from Facing South:

Women's Voices responds: "Sorry for the confusion"

Women's Voices Women Vote has responded in several forums to the issues we raised in yesterday's investigation about their illegal and deceptive voter outreach activities. The main response came from group founder and president Page Gardner, in a statement titled: "Confusion Surrounding Robo-Calls in North Carolina."

First, it's important to note that Gardner's statement in no ways refutes, or even addresses, any of the basic facts put forward by our investigation:

* In North Carolina, Women's Voices has been conducting a robo-call and mailing campaign that the state Attorney General has confirmed is illegal, that has been secretive and deceptive, and will likely have the effect of confusing and discouraging North Carolina voters.

* Our report documents that, in at least 10 other states -- Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin -- Women's Voices has drawn condemnation from election officials and voters. The group has been accused of misrepresenting election law, using secretive and dishonest tactics and generating widespread confusion among voters -- again, threatening to dampen voter participation.

http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/index.asp

[EFerrari]

34. Same firm does voter contact work for robo-call group, Clinton campa

Same firm does voter contact work for robo-call group, Clinton campaign
In our earlier investigation revealing the outfit behind the misleading and illegal robo-calls made to North Carolina voters just days before a critical primary election, we reported that questions have been raised about the connections between that group -- the D.C.-based nonprofit Women's Voices Women Vote -- and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign.

We noted, for example, that WVWV Founder and President Page Gardner has donated generously to Clinton and to HILLPAC, but has given nothing to the Obama campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org. We also noted that WVWV Executive Director Joe Goode previously worked as a pollster for Bill Clinton, and that WVWV board member John Podesta is the former chief of staff for President Clinton as well as a Hillary Clinton donor.

There are other connections that we did not mention, but that have been pointed out in comments here and at other sites. For example, Maggie Williams is a former member of WVWV's leadership team, according to Sourcewatch.org; she also served as chief of staff to First Lady Hillary Clinton and to the Clinton Foundation in New York, and she was named the manager of Clinton's campaign in February. And Holly Schadler, WVWV's attorney, helped set up the Back to Business Committee in 1994 to defend Bill and Hillary Clinton from attacks by political enemies.

But one of the most striking connections between WVWV and the Clinton campaign -- and one particularly relevant to a story involving what appear to be voter suppression efforts right before an election -- was pointed out to us by a reader. He notes that the firm in charge of voter outreach for WVWV is MSHC Partners, whose president is Hal Malchow. Sourcewatch.org reports that Malchow was a member of WVWV's leadership team.

http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/04/same-firm-does-voter-contact-work-for.asp

[PATRICK]

35. I wonder

(and I apologize if this passes into GD-P) firestorm territory if the Clinton campaign math is not as belligerently crazy and over the top as it appears. The negative stuff by the numbers can't work and damages the party, etc. But what if it gets close to that magic few per cent territory where the GOP machine can be presumed- without any earth-shaking conspiracies or deals necessary- to kick in and give her the cap to her case to the SD's?

That, unfortunately, would make sense. I hope sincerely they are just pretty desperate and angry. How they expect to win the election itself is a problem left for another day. The infuriating thing about election fraud since 2000 is how conspicuously AWOL the party leadership is in the off radar struggle. Siegelman on the Hartmann show probably sums up the general protection by incredulity high crimes receive in America, the home of optimistic can do myths and presumptions. He only guesses that the reporters can't fathom the unpleasant possibility that elections and the DOJ are rigged to the hilt. Of course, that is underselling the marching orders from the corporate food chain which constantly shoves journalism under the bus(to a point where it nearly ceases to exist) in a CYA routine on behalf of the powers that be in order of corporate preference.

In some unused corner of the mind and soul however I firmly believe they know(sense, feel, misinterpret reality), and that everyone knows that yes this is smoke and there is fire and simply bury it all for that ever so wonderful something else that screws up EVERY single profession and consciousness in America. I think the governor, getting past the irritated scoffing, might be amazed how much the MSM, at every level, knows about their cover ups and what is going on.

In human psychology it the nearness of truth and the common shared awareness that itself can be the hardest wall to crack when it is raised. Members of the same religion will fight more rabidly about minor differences and drive themselves to defensive extremes in the process. It is the common truths they THINK they share and defend mutually that inspire the most fear, defensiveness, rigidity and absurd horror when the inevitable contradictions occur. Into those cracks come things to create an abyss that divides and engulfs. Those who make and worsen those cracks for their personal gain share NONE of the common bond and therefore are empowered, and too often escape all accountability in the general consensus to avoid painful truth.

[EFerrari]

36. NPR: Group with Clinton Ties Behind Dubious Robocalls

All Things Considered, May 1, 2008 · Thousands of North Carolina residents answered their telephones last week to hear this message, delivered in a deep, soothing voice:

"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."

In fact, the deadline to register for the May 6 Democratic presidential primary had already passed. The robocall went to many registered voters who were expecting to vote that day. The call and follow-up mailings left many wondering whether they were registered for the primary or not.

This sounds like a classic example of voter suppression — sowing confusion in order to drive down turn-out. The calls seemed to be aimed at African-American communities, places where Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is expected to run well ahead of New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90114863

[EFerrari]

37. Following the money trail: graph

http://www.npr.org/news/images/2008/may/01/wvwvchart.html

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

38. thanks sfexpat2000 - we in NC are pissed off over this

you know we've worked hard here, and considering how easy it is to
register to vote now (through same day at early voting sites) its a smack
in our faces that a DC group would come in and pull this Jim Crow mess.

[EFerrari]

39. I'm mad, right with you.

mod mom had me call the House Judiciary Committee yesterday with the most comprehensive links and with a list of questions.

Because, imho, the Feds need to look into this. It's not enough to have one state looking into what happened in their venue.

[mod mom]

40. Thanks sfexpat. I agree, just because some Dems w ties to the group say no foul...

we should NOT follow the money and ask who benefits?

When the Dems remained silent despite the evidence I no longer just trusted they were working in out best interests. What is important to me is the integrity or the vote and protection of the voter.

[EFerrari]

41. That's my interest, as well. The campaign connection is much less

important except for the fact that wherever this happens, there will be one.

We have an opportunity to push on one of the main methods used to screw up our elections. Let's grab it. And I agree about not relying on politicians or political parties. They have no real interest in the matter. And, it's our election, anyway, not theirs.