Posted by Boy, this represents some real sleaze… from a press release today from Secretary of State Beth Chapman.
MONTGOMERY – Secretary of State Beth Chapman has received notification indicating false information is being circulated regarding today’s District 7 State Senate race between Democrat Laura Hall and Republican Paul Sanford.
She wants to inform all voters in this election they are to cast their ballots today.
Emails and fliers have been circulating that state that due to “heavy expected turnout” there will be two elections this week: Tuesday for Republican voters and Wednesday for Democratic voters.
“This information is totally false,” says Secretary of State Chapman, who is Alabama’s chief elections official. “The election is being conducted today and today only. There is no election being conducted on Wednesday.”
Blood has been shed to protect our right to vote, and a few miscreants want to deny it to some with whom they differ by spreading a lie.
Can anyone get me a copy of said flier and/or email?
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anyone that is dumb enough to believe that rumor should not be voting anyway in my opinion….
and anyone using those tactics, shouldn’t be elected to represent the people of their district.
It was on Dale Jackson’s website this morning. No class.
I have seen that flyer in many different states and I actually kept a copy of it that was being handed out in Baltimore in 2002. I am not sure that I still have it, but from memory… it had the state seal of Maryland in the top right corner and was written to look like a memo from the SOS office.
It was actually being handed out the weekend before the election, and Congressman Elijah Cummings held a press conference to publicize the effort to misinform minority voters.
I never heard of it being circulated over email before and I wonder if it is tracable if that is the case.
2010 – Remember that this is a special election, and most of these voters are not as informed as you are. They do not spend their afternoon visiting political blogs.
Of course you dismiss the tactic and even criticize the intended target, but I wonder how you reacted at the voter registration forms filled out by Mickey Mouse for ACORN.
He has since removed it, apparently.
That stuff didn’t come from anyone connected with Paul Sanford. I think there might need to be some investigation as to the true aource of it, and it might be very very surprising.
Clearly, the flyer wont say “paid for by Paul Sanford” on the bottom. In fact the flyers that I have seen in the past didnt identify any funding source which is obviously a smart move when you are violating the law.
I am not sure this was done by Sanford, but it is clearly done by some entity trying to influence the race in his favor. That shouldnt surpise anyone.
believe me post 4 – i also think ACORN is a master at mis information and less than ethical tactics. My point is – people need to be informed instead of everyone getting so upset and acting like cry babies when something like this happens. we are a take care of me because i can’t do it myself society and it’s pathetic.
I don’t know. Supposedly Harold See distributed anonymous flyers attacking himself, so he could denounce the attacks. Kennedy had no idea what to do with that one. Could be Laura Hall using the “minority suppression” card to get her voters out?
#7, are you accusing Paul Sanford of violating the law? Because if you are, you are wrong. He would never ever do that. Anyone who knows him knows that.
#9 I think you are very very close to the real truth here.
I think after what happened in HD12 in Cullman last year, there were some in the GOP (at least some in Cullman county) who felt that the GOP had not gone negative enough on James Fields, especially on the race issue. This time, the GOP is taking a slightly harder tack. If they lose this race, the GOP ought to get hammered in the media. If they win, they ought to get hammered worse.
Samford, I would be careful about the finger pointing here. I know the people involved on both sides. Sanford’s are a good deal cleaner. My best guess is that this has been done by the Democrats.
I very specifically said that I dont know who is distributing the flyers, but I do believe that it is someone that wants Sanford to win.
That being said, if it was Hall, someone from her camp, or acting on her behalf distributing the flyers it is just a bad.
If someone waits to Wen. to vote, do the have to give back to Laura Hall their “walking around” money?
#9 and #11, the “false flag” negative flyer move is not uncommon in politics, especially special elections. If this was a flyer attacking Laura Hall’s character or race what you say might be possible if unlikely.
But no one supporting a Democratic campaign with half a brain in his or her head would ever pull something that had the chance of decreasing their own turnout. That is just patently ridiculous. Whose mind would this change? Not to mention the off chance it could be traced back to one of your supporters. You would risk significantly decreasing people who you know are going to vote for you turning out in exchange for potentially changing a couple of minds. No Way.
Also consider the fact that Huntsville’s own Rush Limbaugh Dale Jackson had it on his website this morning. This whole thing stinks and I have no doubt it was done by a Sanford supporter if not someone within his campaign. Obviously they had decent media contacts to get on Jackson’s site so quickly.
It could be someone who wants Sanford to win, but it would never be Sanford. He wouldn’t allow a tactic like that.
That said, I think it is more likely a Democrat ploy because they are usually – quite frankly – the ones who have the best bag of tricks on Election Day.
Nos. 6, 9, and 11, your insinuations are ridiculous. No one would attempt to suppress their voters just so they claim that there was voter suppression. By the time the word got out about the suppression, the polls are closed.
No. 9, it is very different than what See did to Kennedy. See sent the fliers out days in advance and had time to get word out about the alleged attacks and get out his response. A one day turnaround is absurd. Your conspiracy theories only play into the hands of those that want to portray Hall as playing the race card.
And, I am not insinuating that Sanford participated in voter suppression so that he could accuse Hall of playing the race card. It is certainly not clear who is behind this, so all we can say is that it is shameful whoever is responsible.
Sounds like the US Attorney will be busy this week.
#18 – True, the US Attorney office under Bush was too busy trying to prevent Mickey Mouse from voting all over the United States, but I think the Obama AG’s office might be more inclined to investigate this.
Anonymous 6, 11, 13, and 16, just so you know, we had enough of campaign trolls on this website in the CD2 race. There are plenty of other political blogs to troll and gin up your latest campaign messages.
Samford, I would agree the tactic would SEEM to be that of a Sanford supporter . . .BUT . . .
The Democrats are going to turn out today and something like this wouldn’t matter. They are better organized, they’ll have labor unions giving people rides to the polls etc. So this wouldn’t work even if it was a Sanford supporter . . .
That makes me think it might be Hall’s people. They could decry the “evil tactic” to whip up that extra bit of support in the closing hours . . .may seem unlikely to you, but it’s a possibility . . .
And I am damn certain that Paul Sanford would personally horsewhip anyone associated with him who would do anything like this.
Sanford wouldn’t do this – he’s too nice. He didn’t even fight back as Laura Hall plays the race card, accusing him (and his supporters) of being racist.
It would be interesting to see where the emails / flyers originated or what they say – it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s a dirty trick. Lie, cheat, or steal to win elections – that’s the Democrat way.
That said – people make the same joke every election – #1 is right about that.
Ther aren’t flyers (that is my understanding). This was all Dale Jackson’s doing. A really bad tasteless joke. That is what all of this is. HE ought to be horsewhipped.
17,
It is now 4:40. Polls close at 7. Most people vote after work. This will be all over black radio stations in Huntsville this afternoon, INCREASING black turnout. Honestly, the flyer probably did more to publicize the special election than anything else. If it was done by a pro-Sanford person – it backfired.
I don’t think it is at all ridiculous to think a pro-Hall person did this, and it worked!
#22 – I think you should read the link below before you claim it is Democrats that lie, cheat, and steal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Rove#1986_William_Clements.2C_Jr._gubernatorial_campaign
Just b/c demos lie cheat and steal more often than republicans doesn’t mean they have a monopoly on the practices.
All the Sanford advocates, here, named and unnamed, that are suggesting this was just another dirty democrat trick perpetrated by Hall to gin up the black vote needs to consider one thing. Hall didn’t need the extra turnout. Hall’s polls showed her with a comfortable lead. It was Sanford’s polls that showed it neck-in-neck. His supporters are the worried ones here.
Her polls may have showed her winning, but maybe her turnout machine wasn’t hitting the numbers they needed.
Bottom line: I don’t know who did this, but I wouldn’t automatically assume it was Sanford allies, nor would I put it past Hall allies. Nor would I assume it wasn’t some unaffiliated prankster.
JD Hogg, if here turnout machine wasn’t hitting the numbers they needed why the hell would they do something designed to decrease turnout? If this thing wasn’t so well-designed to look official I might believe you. There is literally zero chance that the Democrats are behind this. Many on this blog seem to have an opinion of Paul Sanford that he would not do such a thing. I will not question that. But there is no doubt in my mind this was done by someone hoping to defeat Laura Hall.
Is everyone just ignoring the fact that this was posted on theattackmachine this morning? And before any of these ‘mysterious’ fliers went up, I believe.
Because, samforddem, it’s not designed to suppress turnout. It’s designed to INCREASE turnout by angering her core constituency. Also, as someone else mentioned, to possibly set up an election challenge.
Appollo, what is “theattackmachine”?
It’s the website of Huntsville’s own Rush Limbaugh Dale Jackson.
Even though this wasn’t a Democratic Party dirty trick, I stand by my statement that Democrats would lie, cheat, and steal to win elections. For example, just last year the Democratic Party tried to “hijack” (i.e., steal) the State School Board GOP primaries by pumping in hundreds of thousands of dollars to false flag candidates (e.g., Smithwick).
Use of the great seal of Alabama is protected by law. This “joker” and his radio station should be prosecuted.
Section 13A-10-13 – Unlawful use of great seal of state or printing of official identification card.
(a) It is unlawful for anyone to use an image or facsimile of the Great Seal of the State of Alabama as described in Section 1-2-4 for any commercial purpose.
(c) A violation of subsection (a) or (b) of this section is a Class C felony punishable as provided by law.
(Acts 1994, No. 94-716, §§1, 2.)