As I begin to write this we are 25 hours from poll openings in Virginia. We are cautiously optimistic about Jim Webb's chances, despite the new Gallup Poll showing him 3 points behind among likely voters (it does not agree with other data we have seen - I'd like to see the crosstabs for geographic distribution, etc.). But the real news is that we now have documented evidence of and real concern for voter intimidation.
We do not YET have evidence of the kind of robocalling going on in other states. And the information about the Virginia firm involved will be useful, although with a Republican AG were it to start I'm not sure what if any action we would be able to accomplish. I will pass on for your information what I have, because the contents of the emails I will be posting contains what you will need to know in order to respond should you as a Virginia voter encounter such a problem.
Please keep reading.
THIS IS IMPORTANT INFORMATION. I will put a link for it in whatever visible places I can justify in order that anyone who might need the information will be able to find it. In what I have posted below I have omitted the phone numbers (and some names) but left the email, modified so that it can not be found by a bot.
Those of us in Arlington received the following email from the head of the County Democratic Committee:
We now have confirmed a voter suppression telephone effort, at least in Arlington. It is essential that anyone who learns of such an incident capture relevant details and report them IMMEDIATELY.
We have confirmed at least one instance in NOVA where a person has called a registered voter who has voted consistently in Arlington since 1998, telling him that he will be criminally prosecuted if he tries to vote in Virginia this year.
If you, or anyone you know, receives such a call, please do the following:
1. Request the name, telephone number and email address of the caller.
2. Carefully take down the facts--what happened, what was said.
3. If the caller reports a telephone call or message, try to obtain the
phone number from which the call was made to the caller. Urge the caller to preserve any recorded version of the call. Let him/her know that an attorney from the Democratic Party will be calling them back shortly.
4. If the caller received a writing, have the caller fax or email a copy of
the writing. Also, please find out if it was mailed or hand-delivered. Urge
the caller to preserve the writing. Let him/her know that an attorney from
the Democratic Party will be calling them back shortly.
5. IMMEDIATELY contact me if you have a confirmed incident of attempts at voter suppression. Contact number: (number suppressed) (c). Email:
_ electlaw at aol dot com _
Thank you.
Jay Myerson
General Counsel
Democratic Party of Virginia
Jay B. Myerson
The Law Offices of Jay B. Myerson
11860 Sunrise Valley Drive
Suite 100
Reston, VA 20191
Phone:(number suppressed for posting)
E-mail:_ electlaw at aol dot com _
(mailto: myerson at myersonlaw dot net)
There have been several efforts already in the Mount Vernon area. The chair of the local Democratic Committee there noted in an email:
A few minutes ago and about only an hour after I warned the MVDDC to watch out for voter suppression, I received an email from the DPVA stating that they have confirmed a telephone voter suppression effort taking place in Arlington, Virginia. I've been chairing this committee for three years and this is the first time, I've received a warning like this. I was told it was the following:
We have confirmed at least one instance in NOVA where a person has called a registered voter who has voted consistently in Arlington since 1998, telling him that he will be criminally prosecuted if he tries to vote in Virginia this year.
This does not surprised me. Republicans are angry, afraid of what's coming, and they are lashing out. Remember that their leader in this election encouraged them to knock our "soft teeth down [our] whiny throats." Here in Mount Vernon:
*
They are doing robocalls trying to suppress votes claiming Democrats are anti-military (I'm sure the anti-women/black ones are coming tomorrow);
*
They've stolen our signs, from specific locations multiple times, including Wxxxx Axxxx's sign four times and even tried a fifth after the press was watching, and several of us have observed a specific vehicle repeatedly casing his sign and his house;
*
On Friday, they called the police on us when we had our candlelight vigil with the TV cameras rolling (said we were blocking traffic (which was totally inaccurate (ask Del. Amundsen));
*
Today, two people showed up at the MV Govt. Center, took pictures of our operation and all of our volunteers, measured distances in the hallway with a measuring tape, and then scurried away.
If you receive any phone calls with disinformation, misinformation, or lies, please take the following steps:
1. Request the name, telephone number and email address of the caller.
2. Carefully take down the facts--what happened, what was said.
3. If the caller reports a telephone call or message, try to obtain the phone number from which the call was made to the caller. Urge the caller to preserve any recorded version of the call. Let him/her know that an attorney from the Democratic Party will be calling them back shortly.
4. If the caller received a writing, have the caller fax or email a copy of the writing. Also, please find out if it was mailed or hand-delivered. Urge the caller to preserve the writing. Let him/her know that an attorney from the Democratic Party will be calling them back shortly.
5. IMMEDIATELY contact me at (phone number suppressed) or ssurovell at smillaw dot com and I will get in touch with the DPVA General Counsel.
Voter suppression is a crime and will prosecuted it if it rises to pressuring people not to vote. Thank you for your vigilance.
There are other stories that have been floating around the past few days as well. The message above references an incident that took place at the Mount Vernon Government Center, with people apparently attempting to make a case that the GOTV effort was too close to the polling place (the operators of the effort had measure to ensure that there were at least 40 feet from the entrance to the poll and not violating the law), and when the people taking picture refused to stop or to give their names the incident was reported to authorities.
At least in NoVa we will have massive coverage of polling places by lawyers trained in election law. It is unfortunate but necessary that we take these precautions to ensure that people have the right to exercise their franchise. If the recent history of the Republican efforts is any guide, actual suppression on election day will be concentrated in Black precincts. And perhaps one reason that Allen has not been spending as much on advertising recently is to fund suppression efforts.
Despite things like this, despite the normally tightening of generic polls (although as I have noted several times the internals of those polls at which I have looked lead me to believe that there really is NOT all that much tightening, and what you are seeing is an artifact of skewing of the samples), we are quite optimistic about the chances of Jim Webb winning. Our enthusiasm level is far greater than that of Allen. As was noted on the thread on Steve Jarding's live blog, there is not much visible evidence of GOTV by the Allen campaign. The rate of absentee ballots is massive in NoVa, and is reported as being much heavier than normal around the state - this bespeaks a larger than normal turnout, and the models of likely voters probably do not apply. What tightening there has been in generic ballots and in some individual races has been far more evident in likely voters than in registered voters.
I also note that none of the national polls just released, nor most of the polling done for Gallup in state races, covers a span sufficient to account for the full news about Ted Haggard, or anything else (including to be fair Saddam's death sentence) that came out over the weekend. I think that on balance the news tilts slightly in our favor.
Steve Jarding has told us multiple times to be enthusiastic, but to fight for every last vote so that efforts like this cannot steal elections from us.
In my mind, that Republicans have to resort to this is an indication of their own lack of confidence. They cannot win merely by presenting their message and their candidates against our message and our candidates. Were they to do so and to encourage everyone to make their own judgment, they would lose massively and they know it. So they must decrease the universe of those who vote - by attempting to scare people a out our candidates, by obfuscating, distorting, lying. And when even that is not enough, they resort to attempt to keep our voters from casting ballots. They use "ballot security" methods, they create artificially long lines in Democratic precincts, they challenge voters in Democratic precincts. They do other things, but I don't want to go off on a tangent.
If you are in Virginia, keep your eyes and ears open, and report anything that appears to be voter intimidation or voter suppression. IT IS AGAINST THE LAW. And wherever you are, keep encouraging everyone to vote Democratic. If we turn out enough of our voters, they cannot steal the election.
Now get to work.