sigh.
I don't even know why I should be surprised. I don't know why anyone else should find this surprising, either.
Americans for Prosperity is sending out "absentee ballot applications" in Wisconsin recall districts, with directions to return the ballot by August 11.
Problem is, the elections are August 9.
Now updated with the AFP's response - of course, it was only an honest typo. You stupid liberals. And there's Chris Bower's frontpage diary. And a little summary of the players, and how they all seem to be working together.
Politico has the dirt:
Americans for Prosperity is sending absentee ballots to Democrats in at least two Wisconsin state Senate recall districts with instructions to return the paperwork after the election date.
The fliers, obtained by POLITICO, ask solidly Democratic voters to return ballots for the Aug. 9 election to the city clerk "before Aug. 11."
A Democrat on the ground in Wisconsin said the fliers were discovered to be hitting doors in District 2 and District 10 over the weekend.
"These are people who are our 1's in the voterfile* who we already knew. They ain't AFP members, that's for damn sure," the source said. (*Note - A "1" in a voterfile means a reliable true-blue Democratic voter, probably a donor, certainly a primary voter.)
One flier was discovered in Hudson, Wisc. where Democrat Shelly Moore is attempting to upend GOP State Sen. Sheila Harsdorf in District 10; the other was found in Milwaukee, where Democrat Nancy Nusbaum is challenging Sen. Robert Cowles in District 2. (Note - District 2 sure the heck ain't in Milwaukee, it's up around Green Bay...)
"If they're targeting for Aug. 16, they're hundreds and hundreds of miles off," said the Democratic activist who has been on the ground in Madison for months. "This has nothing to do with either Democratic incumbent up on August 16th."
The absentee trickery comes just as AFP has purchased $150,000 in ad time in Green Bay, Milwaukee and Madison to boost GOP candidates.
These ratbastards.
To all of you who think that somehow there's no difference between a republican and a Democratic Congress/President, come live in Wisconsin for a few months. And I say this as someone who's p*ssed and dejected about Washington.
We need MORE and BETTER Democrats. Please feel free to help here.
UPDATE - A smirking AFP response - you silly stupid liberals!
Matt Seaholm, state director of AFP, blamed the mistake on a typo, saying his group was not trying to mislead anyone.
"This just went out to our members," Seaholm said. "I'm sure the liberals will try to make a mountain out of a mole hill in an attempt to distract voters' attention from the issues."
Other sources say the fliers were received by "card-carrying Democrats active in the recalls" of state Sens. Sheila Harsdorf (R-River Falls) and Rob Cowles (R-Allouez). Harsdorf is running against teacher Shelly Moore, and Cowles is being challenged by former Brown County Executive Nancy Nusbaum.
Two of the activists who received the AFP mailers are expected to file complaints with the state Government Accountability Board later today. Copies of the complaints were obtained by No Quarter.
Seaholm noted that some critics of his group sign up for AFP material so they can keep tabs on the organization, which backs GOP candidates and causes and was co-founded by billionaire activists David and Charles Koch. He said he couldn't be sure if that is what happened here.
"No (mailing) list is perfect," Seaholm said.
Rat bastards.
Oh and there's more:
The address on the "Application form" belongs to Wisconsin Family Action, a "traditional marriage", intelligent-design, public-school-hating bunch.
Oh, and that address? Where have we seen that before? Oh yeah, I remember! That was the address that Wisconsin Right to Life wanted you to send your absentee ballot applications to, after the primary election, as part of their voter suppression plot. Oh, but that was an accident too, telling people that they should wait to vote absentee... on election day.
But wait - there's more. On primary day, someone tracked the phone number for those robocalls. Where did they come from? From a number used by the AFP for Scott Walker this spring!
All our fraud's a circle.