Election Shenanigans From Campaign Watchdog
Nov. 3, 2000 -- Woof, woof.
ABCNEWS.com’s Campaign Watchdog has gotten scores of reports from readers about questionable e-mail, phone calls, advertisements, fliers and activities on the streets and at the polling places.
Read some of the examples and contact us if you have something to report.
Jiggle the Handle
Some people would say that campaign advertising is in the toilet.
Now a radio spot paid for by the Democratic-Farm-Labor Party in Minnesota attacks Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush’s record offers some real proof. The ad implies that Bush has led Texas down the toilet — literally, by punctuating its voice-over with a flushing commode.
The narrator says:
“Governor George Bush says he’s a leader in education. But where’s he led the state of Texas? [cue toilet flushing] Texas students rank 45th lowest nationwide in SAT scores. Texas ranks at the bottom of the country in awarding financial aid. Bush would rather give tax breaks to the wealthy than invest in education. The San Antonio Express-News reported that Bush said “higher education is not my priority.”
“Think his plan for America will be any different? Call Governor Bush, tell him what you think about his priorities. Paid for by the Minnesota DFL Party.”
How accurate is the ad? The SAT score number (Texas ranked 45th in 1998, but in 1999 they actually got worse, dropping to 47th) is correct for 1998 although the next year the state dropped to 47th. The Express-News quote is from March of 1998, before he announced his run for the presidency.
And the ad’s exhortation for listeners to call Bush doesn’t tell them where to call, so its credibility as an advocacy ad is weak. But the sound effect creates a tacky — though memorable — underline to a political point.
Read the Fine Print
A “voting guide” mailed to conservative constituents in California offers a listing of candidates and propositions along with suggested voting choices. It doesn’t list every candidate, only the ones it purports to support in each race.
And what is stated in the fine print on the back of the mailer by the blandly named “Non-Partisan Candidate Evaluation Council” in Marina del Rey?
THIS DOCUMENT WAS PREPARED BY CALIFORNIA VOTER GUIDE. NOT AN OFFICIAL POLITICAL PARTY ORGANIZATION. Appearance in this mailer does not necessarily imply endorsement of other candidates or ballot measures in this mailer. Appearance is paid for and authorized by each candidate and ballot measure when designated by an *.
Yes, “Your Conservative Voting Guide for 34 Years,” as it proudly announces itself, is an electioneering version of a classified ads tabloid.
Every candidate and proposition save one has an asterisk next to its listing. And how does one get an asterisk, let alone a favorable mention in the guide?
Candidates first go to the group’s Web site where they would answer certain questions about their races. The organization then e-mails the candidate back with a price quote.
Listen Up
Don’t believe everything you hear.
In Michigan and Virginia, a man identifying himself as being from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is calling African-American voters to tell them the NAACP is supporting George W. Bush for president.
Not so fast. Julian Bond, NAACP chairman, said, “A disinformation campaign such as this would be in complete conflict with the history of the NAACP. Any efforts to mislead African-American voters will not be tolerated. … It would be an outrage if some individual or organization were contacting African-Americans and attempting to mislead them, and so interfere with the free exercise of their right to vote.”
The NAACP National Voter Fund is formally complaining to the Department of Justice and to the attorneys general in Michigan and Virginia.
May I Help You?
Charles Hoskins, a Democratic candidate for constable in Johnson County, Texas, went to early voting with his wife in Cleburne and got a shock — their ballots already had been filled out.
Election workers “ usually put out three ballots and say ‘Pick one,’” said Gayle Ledbetter, chairman of the Johnson County Democratic Party. “Hoskins and his wife were given their choice of four ballots, and two of them were already marked straight Republican.”
Ledbetter said that prior to balloting, election judges sign each ballot and shuffle them so the numbers are not sequential. The shuffled ballots are then presented to the voter.
So why did the Hoskins get ballots that were already marked? It is unclear whether it was a ballot marked by an earlier voter that somehow hadn’t found its way into the box yet, or whether an election judge had been “helping” the voting process along.
“The reason I have my suspicions is over the last several elections, we’ve had dead people voting, and people who did not live in the county voted,” Ledbetter said. “We had one ballot box leave sealed and by the time it got to the courthouse the seal was broken. Four years ago we had people who lived at the Roadside Park [a restroom at the Interstate] voting.
“It’s south Texas, what can I say? But this seems to be a new low.”
Chatting Up a Storm
Winston Churchill may have fought his battles on the beaches, but more and more today, battles are fought in cyberspace.
If you were to venture into the message boards and chat rooms of Web sites like CNN, Lycos, MSNBC, Deja, Delphi, AOL and our own ABCNEWS.com, you may see strong support for a certain Republican candidate. But curious how all the last names of chatters begin with the same last letter?
Chalk it up to the Texas eRangers and their call to action.
In an e-mail dated Oct. 27 and signed by George W. Bush’s Web site, www.georgewbush.com, recipients are urged to post “Pro-Bush messages” and are given “a list of chat sites that need to be flooded … with pro-Bush messages! Using your last name, find a site below and please post AT LEAST THREE messages per day for the next 11 days.”
eRangers whose surnames begin with A-B are then directed to log onto CNN’s “Allpolitics” board; E-F surnames are invited to ABCNEWS.com, etc. And “Women eRangers” specifically are shepherded to Oxygen (home of Oprah), LifetimeTV, and iVillage, again divided up according to last names.
The Texans are not alone in trying to prompt political participation on the Web.
The California GOP’s Web site, cagop.org, has been sending spam e-mails to people suggesting ABCNEWS.com as a destination for their views about the Democrats’ “shameless tactics.”
Alas, one correspondent indicated to us that he could not extricate himself from cagop.org’s mailing list, which is, sadly, an all-too-common “shameless tactic” in the Internet Age.
And a Gore/Lieberman email sent at the time of the debates asked the party faithful to log onto chat rooms at several sites in order to “spread the word” about the candidates, and added the phone numbers of radio call-in shows.
“Ed Asner is on the phone for you”: Click here for Part II of Campaign Watchdog.
Mary Marsh and Ariane DeVogue contributed to this report.