Quote: Hello, If there is a better place to e-mail my concerns please let me know. I've been unable to find any specific place to report this, but I've received two ballots at my house. This is the second time this has occurred with the same name (previous time was in 2004 I believe). The other person's name is R.K.P. No P. has ever lived at this address as far as I know. I've lived here since 2002; previous owner was C., and before that was J. The only R.P. around this area I've found searching online is listed as deceased from NJ. I'm not sure if this is normal to simply get ballots sent to wrong addresses or if something more serious is wrong here. I wouldn't think it would happen twice. In addition, I've received some election spam at an e-mail address that I use for junk mail that was also addressed to R.P. I've never associated this address in any way with my name (or the name P.) or my home address or anything that should be able to identify my real name. Yet somehow I've recieved this e-mail from "Senator Mikulski" <George@votegeorgejohnson.com> that was addressed to R.P. So two things seem strange to me here: 1) How am I again being mistaken for R.P. at a place that should have no connection to my voter registration information. 2) How did "Senator Mikulski" obtain my e-mail address in the first place. The only way I can think that would be possible would not seem to be very legal (or at least not ethical). My yahoo e-mail account could be connected to my IP address and from that Comcast could tell who I am, but normally people don't have access to that information. Hopefully, there is a logical explanation to all this, but there seems to be too many strange occurrences to not attempt to find out the cause. Below is my contact information to help you resolve this ...

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Tim Daly from Clarendon got a call saying that if he votes Tuesday, he will be arrested. A recording of his voicemail can be found online at: www.webbforsenate.com/media/phone_message.wav

The transcript from his voicemail reads:

"This message is for Timothy Daly. This is the Virginia Elections Commission. We've determined you are registered in New York to vote. Therefore, you will not be allowed to cast your vote on Tuesday. If you do show up, you will be charged criminally."

Daly has been registered to vote in Virginia since 1998, and he has voted for the last several cycles with no problem. He has filed a criminal complaint with the Commonwealth's attorney in Arlington.

Quote:Original post by ChemicalImbalance
Personally, I doubt that they are going to get many votes this way.
However, I do believe that voter fraud is a big problem with both parties.
(I've heard stories of some pretty dirty dealings from both the DNC and RNC.)

Quote:Original post by ChemicalImbalance
Does anyone know of any non-biased* studies on just how many fraudulent votes tend to get through? *Obviously a true non-biased study is difficult to find, but I'm talking about anything where at least a reasonable effort was put forth.

Quote:Original post by Mithrandir
The Republicans are fraudulently pretending to be the FEC and are calling Democrats, telling them they'll be arrested if they vote.

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There are reports out of Nashville that African Americans are getting phone calls telling them if they voted for Harold Ford Jr. in the August primary, they don't need to vote for him again now.

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In at least 53 competitive House races, the National Republican Campaign Committee has launched hundreds of thousands of automated telephone calls, known as "robocalls."

Such calls have sparked a handful of complaints to the FCC and underscore the usefulness of the inexpensive -- and sometimes overwhelming -- political tool.
...
"I think the real point here is that the Republicans are using a desperate campaign tactic that is misleading, at worst violating the law and at best is a page out of Karl Rove's playbook," Psaki said. "They clearly are attempting to mislead voters."

Democrats argued that that's the strategy.

"Because they are getting so many, they are only listening to the first part of the message," said Amy Bonitatibus, a Murphy spokeswoman. "They're hoping to turn off our base. ... These are pretty much dirty tricks by the Republican Party."
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In North Carolina's 11th Congressional District, Republicans are going after challenger Heath Shuler, whose campaign said the calls are coming as late as 2:30 a.m.

"Calling people up, making people think it's me when it's actually them -- it's acts of desperation. ... I think it's part of the corruption in Washington," Shuler said.
...

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And now our fourth story on the COUNTDOWN tonight, another candid admission, this one from the National Republican Congressional Committee. It is sponsoring robocalls, prerecorded phone calls to potential voters which are, at best, annoying, and, at worst, which constitute harassment and suppression of the vote, and may, in fact, be illegal.

Here is one example from the Sixth Congressional District of Illinois.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. I‘m calling with information about Tammy Duckworth.

Tammy Duckworth said she would seriously consider repealing part of the recent federal tax cuts. Tammy Duckworth‘s plan could mean higher taxes for married couples, and the death tax would return. And repealing the current child tax credit would mean that the tax credit would get cut in half.

Tammy Duckworth is wrong on taxes and wrong for Illinois.

This call was paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee and not authorized by any candidate or candidate‘s committee, www.nrcc.org. Thank you for your time.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

OLBERMANN: As you heard, it sounded at first blush like a straightforward negative ad. But the problem is simple. The same call is made repeatedly, sometimes a dozen or more times per day, and the opening line mimics phone messages in favor of the candidate who‘s named, so potential voters feel they might be being harassed, and they hang up before the recording continues, left with the impression that Tammy Duckworth, for example, was badgering them for support.

A Duckworth spokesman says that, quote, “Now when we call, people think we‘ve already made a dozen attempts to contact them. It plays on the fact that people hate these calls and makes them think it‘s us, and not them.”

Multiplying that by about 50 key races around the country reveals the breadth of this latest tactic. A spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee said, quote, “Phone banking is used by campaigns of all stripes. Because these calls are done by cps, it could be some kind of a glitch.”

A glitch. In some cases, reportedly, if you hang up before the call is over, the computer dials you over and over, until you listen to the entire negative voice.

But even if the recipient figures out it is a negative ad, the call may still violate the Do Not Call laws of some states. Sadly, robocalling may pale in comparison to other gems from the bag of dirty tricks, like African American voters in Virginia being told by phone that they may be arrested if they try to vote tomorrow, because they are still registered in another state, or that their polling place has changed. Both claims, of course, patently false.
...

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U.S. Senate candidate James Webb's last name has been cut off on part of the electronic ballot used by voters in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville because of a computer glitch that also affects other candidates with long names, city officials said yesterday.
...

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the possibility of voter intimidation in the hard-fought U.S. Senate race between Sen. George Allen, a Republican, and Democratic challenger James Webb, officials told NBC News.

State officials alerted the Justice Department on Tuesday to several complaints of suspicious phone calls to voters who attempted to misdirect or confuse them about election day, Jean Jensen, Secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections, told NBC’s David Shuster.
...

Quote:
WASHINGTON - Programming errors and inexperience dealing with electronic voting machines frustrated poll workers in hundreds of precincts early Tuesday, delaying voters in Indiana, Ohio, Miss. and Florida and leaving some with little choice but to use paper ballots instead.
...

Quote:Original post by DrjonesDW3d
Democrats do unfair things to get more people to get more people to vote for their side.

Quote:You will NEVER see another election of any sort without the media runing stories about voter fraud, people speculating that the election was stolen in one way or another (such as by fixing machines), people asking for an official recount in one way or another.

Quote:Original post by DrjonesDW3d
IMO it's a balancing act. Republicans do unfair things to get people not to vote for the other side. Democrats do unfair things to get more people to get more people to vote for their side. What can you do? If anything is obvious, it's that the idea of a 'fair' election is now an old concept.

Quote:Original post by DrjonesDW3d
You will NEVER see another election of any sort without the media runing stories about voter fraud, people speculating that the election was stolen in one way or another (such as by fixing machines), people asking for an official recount in one way or another.

Basically, never again will you see someone say "yup, our side lost, we tried our hardest, but that was that." There will only be excuses on ways that one side played more unfair than the other which ended up costing that side the election.

Quote:Original post by DrjonesDW3d
That isn't to say that the sides are playing fair, but it's kind of sad to see where democracy has taken us.