Why is a Woman's Group with Ties to the Clintons supressing the Black Vote

Crash , Tuesday, 10th of August 2010 12:20:20 AM

Hillary Front Caught Suppressing Vote - Again!

From the DNC’s

Crash

taxpayer-funded National Public Radio:

Group with Clinton Ties

Registered User

Behind Dubious Robocalls

by Peter Overby

All Things

Joined: Saturday, 12th of June 2010, 15:02:32

Considered, May 1, 2008 · Thousands of North Carolina residents answered

Posts: 1442

their telephones last week to hear this message, delivered in a deep,

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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.
/>But the group behind the calls isn’t partisan Republican or
ideologically conservative. It’s Women’s Voices Women Vote, a
501(c)(3) charity that states its mission as registering single women to
vote…

Just a week ago, the group’s founder, Page Gardner,
contacted the North Carolina Board of Elections to let them know about the
mailing. She noted that the Women’s Voices packet, which she said was
intended to boost registration in general, would arrive in mailboxes just
before the primary. Gardner wrote: “We hope this unfortunate coincidence
in timing does not lead to any confusion or aggravation for either your
state’s voters or registrars.”

Will Evans of the Center for
Investigative Reporting , who collaborated in reporting this story, found
some Obama backers among the Women’s Voices leadership, but the group
mostly has ties to Clinton and her campaign. Gardner worked on former
President Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign. Board member John Podesta was
President Clinton’s chief-of-staff. Maggie Williams, Hillary Clinton’s
campaign manager, used to be on the Women’s Voices leadership team and
did consulting work for the group…

The Institute for Southern
Studies began investigating after receiving complaints about the robocalls.
The institute traced the calls to Women’s Voices, which has acknowledged
responsibility.

The Institute turned up other complaints about
the group as well, in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin. A “Lamont Williams”
robocall similar to North Carolina’s ran in Ohio last fall. In Virginia,
robocalls days before the February primary caused voters to flood the
board of elections with phone calls, in turn triggering an investigation
by the state police.

Kromm says this shows at least five
months of a “deceptive tactic, illegal in many states.” He notes,
“Each time this group is criticized for this activity, they apologize
for the confusion.”

The North Carolina attorney general says
the robocalls are illegal. State law requires that automated phone calls
identify the sponsoring group and give the recipient a phone number or
other means of contacting the group. The Lamont Williams call did
neither…

As the article notes, a former “leadership team”
member at WVWV is none other than Hillary’s campaign manager, Maggie
Williams. And Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, John Podesta, is still
listed as a “director.”

As the article also briefly notes,
these same people have pulled this and other similar voter suppression
stunts several times before.

As the aforementioned Institute
For Southern Studies points out, this is not an isolated mistake:
/>D.C. nonprofit aimed at women voters behind deceptive N.C. robo-calls/>
By Chris Kromm

May 1, 2008

* In Arizona last
November, election officials were “inundated with complaints” after
Women’s Voices sent a mailing erroneously claiming that recipients were
“required” to mail back an enclosed voter registration form. Many who
received the mailing were already registered; the mailing also gave the
wrong registration date. Secretary of State Jan Brewer denounced the
group’s tactics as “misleading and deceptive.” A similar mailing in
Colorado that month “[drew] fire and caused confusion,” according to a
state press release.

* In Wisconsin, state officials singled
out Women’s Voices for misleading and possibly disenfranchising voters,
stating in a press release [PDF]: “One group in particular — Women’s
Voices. Women Vote, of Washington, D.C. — apparently ignored or
disregarded state deadlines in seeking to register voters,” sending in
registrations past the January 30 deadline and causing “hundreds of
Wisconsin voters who think they registered in advance” to actually not
be.

* Michigan officials ended up “fielding tons of calls
from confused voters” after Women’s Voices did a February mailing to
“380,000 unmarried women” — including numerous deceased voters and
even more that were already registered. Sarah Johnson of Women’s Voices
“seemed confused by the confusion,” the Lansing State Journal
reported.

* A 1.5 million-piece Women’s Voices mailing in
Florida falsely stated: “To comply with state voting requirements,
please return the enclosed application.” Pasco County’s elections
supervisor called it “disingenuous”; another said it created “a lot
of unnecessary panic on behalf of the voters,” reported local
newspapers. Sarah Johnson of Women’s Voice said, “I’m sorry to hear
that.”

* By March, Women’s Voices was backing off the
erroneous “registration is required” language, but there were still
problems. For example, a mailing in Arkansas allowed that “registering
to vote is voluntary,” but a clerk in Washington County reported that
“the majority [of forms] sent back to the county come from registered
voters, causing needless labor for office employees.”
/>Problems with the group’s tactics have also been documented in
Louisiana, Kentucky and Ohio.

In each state, the Women’s
Voices campaigns have brought the same news and the same themes, again and
again: Deceptive claims and misrepresentations of the law — sometimes
even breaking the law. Wildly inaccurate mailing lists, supposedly aimed
at “unregistered single women,” but in reality reaching many
registered voters as well as families, deceased persons and pets. Tactics
that confuse voters and potentially disenfranchise them.

For
such a sophisticated and well-funded operation, which counts among its
ranks some of the country’s most seasoned political operatives, such
missteps are peculiar, as is the surprise expressed by Women’s Voices
staff after each controversy…

Probably NPR is just relieved
to find that mean, racist Republicans aren’t behind these shenanigans.

Of course if they were, NPR and the rest of our watchdog media
would be screaming for a special prosecutor and round the clock
Congressional show trials.

But speaking of fraud, here is just
one example of an ad from this taxpayer supported non-partisan 501c3
“charity”:

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Why is a Woman's Group with Ties to the Clintons supressing the Black Vote

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