Update on unethical election day GOTV tactics used in Maryland
"The glossy fliers bore photos of black Democratic leaders on the front. Under the headline "Democratic Sample Ballot" were boxes checked in red for Ehrlich and Senate candidate Michael S. Steele, who were not identified as Republicans. Their names were followed by a long list of local Democratic candidates."
The GOP also neglected to tell the workers that they would be helping Republicans. What's worse is that this was NOT A LAST MINUTE GOTV EFFORT, but rather a strategy planned out weeks ahead of time, AND HAS ALSO BEEN USED BY EHRLICH, AND STEELE IN PAST YEARS ELECTIONS!
Well, a reader of Vivian J. Paige's blog posted this article confirming what I suspected would unfortunately be the case from the beginning, that is, simply not enough legal basis for an investigation.
I figured there was probably no law against this (or at least, nothing specifically banning this type of thing). I also maintain what I said in the original entry I made, that it was an extremely unethical thing to do, and both Robert Ehrlich and Michael Steele, along with the entire Maryland Republican Party, should be ashamed.
2 comments:
What there is a law against in Maryland is paying people in Maryland to assist on election day. Ehrlich got in trouble for this when first elected to governor. That is why he thought to pay people out of state...
Hi Bill, thanks for stopping by. I know the law you are talking about, but it was overturned in 2003. Here's an excerpt from a WaPo article on November 13, 2006:
This wasn't the first time Ehrlich and Steele had recruited poll workers this way. In 2002 -- when Ehrlich was campaigning to become Maryland's first Republican governor in a generation and Steele was his choice for lieutenant governor -- they bused in homeless people from the District to hand out literature at Prince George's precincts.
Three people were charged under a state statute that prohibited campaign workers from hiring people to work on Election Day. The statute was overturned in 2003, however, after attorneys argued that the law was an infringement on free speech, and the charges were dropped.
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