Facing South on the robo-calls: Smoking guns?

however, I think the actions are deliberate and it does look like it is being done to influence the election to benefit her. Now would be a very good time to denounce the group's actions.

You can't take it back if someone makes you mad!

I don't think the link to Podesta and Goode is that weak. Even if she doesn't know, someone in the campaign has to know about this...

I'll gladly fight the War of the Pansies, but I have a hard time swallowing this.

Page S. Gardner's response: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/page-gardner

This type of slimey activity should not be going on.

I do think that the fact Hillary is the one who would benefit from disenfranchising African American voters (those who were targetted), coupled with the donations to her campaign from those linked to this org, is suspicious.

Hopefully, her camp had absolutely nothing to do with this. I think it would be beneficial for her to disassociate herself from this org considering their questionable pattern of voter suppression.

www.MoBetterChange.blogspot.com

Page Gardner's explanation doesn't work.

Someone named "Lamont," whose voice sounds like an African American male is used to encourage single women to vote? Why would "Lamont" not mention the purpose of the call?

Why not mention the organization, "Women's Voices, Women's Vote" and use a WOMAN'S VOICE?

This group deserves every bit of bad publicity they're getting, and I hope they get more.

I can't believe that they wouldn't have checked NC's voter registration laws before an organization like Women's Voices Women's Vote put a major drive like this underway. "I'm sorry now" doesn't cut it for me. I want to hear from Hillary herself that she is horrified that this happened.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
Pointing at Naked Emperors

You don't have to tie this back to the Clinton camp to be frustrated with this sort of tactic.

Somewhere in the evolution of our politics, we determined that there were two levers that we could influence to yield results in an election: we could (A) increase the level of support for our candidate or cause or (B) decrease the level of support for our opponent's candidate or cause.

I think that two views on campaign tactics emerged within the Democratic Party after Bill Clinton's presidency. (I'm sure that the tension has been there before, but the I voted first during the first Clinton presidency.) One side wants to rethink the strategy (and as a progressive, I think I fall into that camp). The other side wants to open up new tactics by fighting fire with fire (if someone tries to swift boat you, swift boat them first).

There may be better ways to divide the groups (instead of strategy vs tactics), but you have on one side massive efforts to increase the base of the Democratic party and you have on the other side tactics to suppress our own voter turnout.

As much as I dislike Karl Rove's tactics, I think we'll see these sorts of tactics implemented more and more by both sides as reliable tools (and I'd include the heavy use of negative ads in that mix as well).

That was the sound my head exploding. This kind of tactic, from a supposedly-progressive, trusted organization - makes me so mad!!! We worked with WVWV when I was at Planned Parenthood, so I feel particularly slimy and nauseated now.

It doesn't matter if Clinton herself is behind it, obviously her people are (Podesta, etc.) and the main point is to DISENFRANCHISE BLACK PEOPLE! This is the same basic struggle for civil rights that has been waged for the past century. Don't go thinking it's all better now.

Part of the newest release from this organization.

From: Sarah Johnson
Date: Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 5:40 PM
Subject: UPDATE - Organization Trying to Stop Remaining Mail in North Carolina

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Wednesday April 30, 2008

Sarah Johnson
Communications Director
(202) 659-9570

UPDATE

Statement of Page Gardner, President, Women's Voices, Women Vote.

Organization Trying to Stop Remaining Mail in North Carolina

"In an attempt to prevent further confusion surrounding our voter registration efforts prior to the North Carolina primary, Women's Voices. Women Vote took the extra step of attempting to stop the remaining mail from being delivered to homes. In total, 20 postal trucks are carrying Women's Voices. Women Vote registration applications. Four of the trucks have already delivered, but Women's Voices. Women Vote is making every attempt to delay the delivery of the remaining sixteen trucks.

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You guys see how horrible this stuff is. African Americans need to step up and demand more from the people who represent this country and state. Do you finally see how awful the electoral process can be. Who would think that someone would be so desparate to win an election that they would disenfranchise thousands of people. Maybe this is why there is so much mistrust by the minority of the majority. I think moore's ads are especially evil because they use exaggerated dialect to portray these characters. Listen, I think that he has dug a big huge whole. I don't think the AA electorate will take the bait. He has miscalculated his audience. Most are much more suffisticated than he thinks. Hasn't he heard that the AA electorate has no fear of the KKK and therefore will not succomb to his tactics. Good grief, he accuses Perdue of being racist but I am starting to wonder about him. This is right out of the KKK play book. Wow is all that I can say. Where is he getting this advice from. I would much better have Perdue represent me than a man who basically belittles the thoughtfulness of many of north carolina's productive citizens. I wonder if we had a large hispanic voting population what would he air. Or if the asian population was larger what would he air. I believe that North Carolina will go to the polls on May 6th or before and choose someone who will represent us without such hateful tactics. We sure know one thing. richard moore is not be hind the Lamont Williams calls.

From TPM:

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/04/north_carolina_ag_open...

North Carolina AG Opens Investigation of Robo Calls
By Paul Kiel - April 30, 2008, 6:22PM
And yet another development on those calls by Women's Voices Women Vote.

North Carolina's attorney general has just put out a press release (pdf) saying that he's investigating the calls and taking credit for having them stopped. "Regardless of the motivation, the robo-calls violated the law and they needed to stop," Roy Cooper said. He also includes a correspondence with the group's lawyer. In the letter, Cooper requests a variety of information about the calls.

con't...

www.MoBetterChange.blogspot.com

I called the general counsel for the NC State Board of Elections today when I heard about this.

This non profit org, Women's Voices, Women Vote did not seek advice or counsel from the SBOE before they launched their "registration efforts". They made a decision to use their resources in our state without asking for guidelines or learning our voter registration rules and laws.

This is a out of state non profit sticking their nose in our eletions. They have caused trouble NC before and also in other states.

Earlier this year they mailed thousands of partially pre-filled voter registration forms to women. Many of these women were already registered to vote and called their county BoEs and local newspapers to ask what was going on.

Some voters mailed in the forms, and what happened is that our county BoEs around the state were flooded with lots of registration forms for voters already registered.

During the busy time of year this means that BoE's have a harder time processing the legitimate registration forms for voters who AREN'T registered.

Advice for all voters in NC:

Time is running out, people with registration problems can still register and vote from now until May 3rd

Important Election Dates:
2008 Primary Election May 6th
Last day to register to vote: Apr. 11
Absentee Voting: Mar. 17 - Apr. 29
One Stop Absentee Voting: Apr. 17 - May 3

Go to the North Carolina State Board of Elections website to check your voter registration. They also have information for new and current voters on how to register, where to vote, and more. Voters without internet access should call their County Boards of Elections to find out if they are registered).

See our website, NCVOTER where we now have an online form where voters can report their voting problems.

Also, voters can call 1-866- MY-VOTE-1
to report voting problems.

Is it true that according the the statute, you can recieve up to 5000 if you received one of these robo calls. I am sure that the people who received these calls would like to receive their check in the mail. Can they send them out in trucks to. Read the letter faxed to the attorney for the group from the AG. Link is above.

Is it true that according the the statute, you can recieve up to 5000 if you received one of these robo calls. I am sure that the people who received these calls would like to receive their check in the mail. Can they send them out in trucks to. Read the letter faxed to the attorney for the group from the AG. Link is above.

During five election cycles, I have worked with the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition where I co-directed targeted voter registration campaigns and 'get out the vote' efforts to the African American community. I have also had the great privelege of serving on the Board of Directors of Women's Voices, Women Vote -- a non profit, non partisan organization whose mission is registering underrepresented Americans, primarily, unmarried women.

I am also a voter. And in this election, I am supporting Barack Obama, whom I've known and worked with for years. I am also an elected delegate to the Democratic Convention for Barack Obama.

Given my candidate preference and my background and associations in voter registration efforts, I can say with great conviction, there was no effort to suppress or confuse African American voters, or any other voters in the state of North Carolina by Women's Voices, Women Vote.

I have seen up close the work of Women's Voices. Women Vote and know well the commitment, passion and leadership our organization has shown in helping make the voices of unmarried women and other underrepresented voters heard. There may have been mistakes made in this particular registration drive in North Carolina, but Women's Voices, Women Vote's motives were not malicious or intended in any way to confuse voters. Ironically, just the opposite. I know the staff is making every effort to right the situation.

By William McNary, President of USAction, Co-Executive Director Citizen Action/Illinois and Board Member of Women's Voices, Women Vote

Some other notable progressives have also been stepping up to defend Women's Voices, Women Vote. I have a hard time understanding how the "honest mistake" argument works, particularly when there is no explanation of how the mistake occurred, or why it has occurred repeatedly in several primary states right before their respective primaries.

- - - - -

If it's an accident, they need to tell the public what went wrong and who is fired.

People are stepping up to defend them because they have a legitimate front to their operations, and I'm sure the whole board wasn't aware of the voter suppression tactics so people are also stepping up to defend the other important people on the board.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/1/10121/58318/521/506972

Regarding why they didn't identify themselves there are two explanations: 1) it was a stupid mistake, and 2) they thought the name of the group (Women's Voices, Women Vote) would alienate the folks the robocall was targetting.

- - - - -

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2008/04/clinton_nixon_...

http://www.theweekdaily.com/news_opinion/us_news_opinion/40521/are_clint...

- - - - -

This is a statement from James Rucker, Executive Director of ColorOfChange.org:

There have been clear errors in planning and execution on the part of Women's Voices Women's Votes, and those errors have led to a situation where Black voters in North Carolina may be dissuaded from voting in a hotly contested and important primary election. This is a major problem and point of concern. To continue in the important role they've played in past elections, Women's Voices Women's Votes must fix the damage done and prevent it from happening in the future--working to restore the faith of the community protecting access to the vote by all people. It is essential that groups doing voter registration operate within the law and that they ensure that they do not confuse voters in to the process of doing their work.

At the same time, the accusations that the errors made by Women's Voices Women's Votes are part of a conspiracy to help Senator Clinton, appear to be false and reckless. Women's Voices Women's Votes has a history of registering voters of color, and the facts as we understand them, simply don't point to such a conspiracy. As Women's Voices Women's Votes takes deserved heat for whatever damage they've caused, it's not productive for them to be unfairly maligned as working to harm or help one of the presidential primary candidates.

As an organization that is tirelessly fighting voter suppression in the Black community where a history of disenfranchisement necessitates a raised level of scrutiny, we must take any accusations seriously, but in doing so rely on the facts.

- - - - -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/2/64733/51431/906/507604

Yesterday National Public Radio's All Things Considered program aired a good story on the North Carolina Robocall scandal that describes some of the key problems with the robocalls by Women's Voices Women Vote (WVWV). NPR has also uncovered some clear conflict of interest issues that could put WVWV in more legal hot water and does a great job of summarizing the many Clinton connections that run throughout the organization. It's great reporting.

And here is the story on NPR yesterday:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90114863

- - - - -

Voter suppression in North Carolina?

Did a pro-Hillary Clinton nonprofit group make voter suppression robo-calls to keep Barack Obama's voters from going to the polls in North Carolina on Tuesday? That's the charge from part of the liberal blogosphere this week, but it's a charge based on no solid evidence of wrongdoing. While the calls were misleading and probably against the law, a close look at the facts leads to the conclusion that the group responsible had no malicious intent, but is just another well-intentioned but bungling nonprofit.

The North Carolina Attorney General's Office has asked the group, Women's Voices. Women's Vote, to cease and desist from making the calls, and WVWV agreed to do so. The group's leader, Page Gardner, who has donated to Clinton in the past, has apologized. Board members -- including one Obama supporter who's also an elected delegate for the senator -- have said the calls were a mistake, and that the group wasn't trying to suppress African-American voter turnout.

Last Thursday and Friday, North Carolinians received the following message:

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 your application. Then you will be able to vote and make your voice heard. Please return the voter-registration form when it arrives. Thank you.

In all, that robo-call was made 182,236 times. Those who received it would be justified in being very confused. First, at least some of them had already registered to vote. And second, the registration deadline for the state's primary, which is on Tuesday, had already passed by the time the calls were made. Also, WVWV appears to have violated North Carolina law because it did not provide contact information in the message, or a way for recipients to decline future calls. WVWV is subject to civil penalties for the infraction.

Soon, the blogsphere was abuzz with accusations. But the coverage of the incidents was severely flawed, and people like Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall -- who has written for Salon and is one of the blogosphere's most respected residents -- were lobbing criminal allegations against WVWV before all the facts were in. In fact, some had made these charges even before they knew who was behind the robo-calls. Writing about the calls on Marshall's TPM Muckraker on Tuesday, before WVWV had been identified as the source of the calls, Paul Kiel said, "Here's another for the annals of vote suppression." Kiel further characterized the calls as a "scheme."

WVWV denies any wrongdoing, and says it wasn't trying to suppress the vote in North Carolina's primary -- or even to register voters for that contest. Its focus is the general election. "The goal was to register them for the general election in November," a spokesperson for the group told Salon. "The timing was clearly a mistake. We regret the confusion."

Shaun Dakin is the founder and CEO of the National Political Do Not Contact Registry; in February, he testified about robo-calls in a Senate Committee on Rules and Administration hearing. He thinks there's an innocent explanation for WVWV's actions. "I think it may be more of the case of an organization being kind of incompetent rather than really trying to do something that is nefarious ... This is an organization that is trying to do the right thing as far as I know," Dakin told Salon. "If you're an Obama supporter, then this is another example of Clinton trying to take over the world. If you're an impartial observer who doesn't have a dog in the fight, it is what it is." Dakin also says WVWV's apparent violation of North Carolina law is not uncommon, that he thinks few organizations identify themselves properly or offer callers a way to stop the calls. He believes North Carolina's attorney general may have taken action in this case because of the attention given it. "If you put it in context, the context is pretty much every campaign and every nonprofit that makes robo-calls is 'violating the law,' but usually there's nothing done," Dakin said.

Despite its name, WVWV isn't just about women. Founded in 2004, the group's mission statement says, "Despite their numbers, unmarried Americans are underrepresented in national elections and their voices are not being heard in our democracy. Women's Voices. Women Vote was created to activate unmarried Americans in their government and in our democracy." As part of that mission, WVWV has been engaging in national voter registration work for years. This latest effort didn't include just North Carolina -- in fact, 23 other states were targeted. And, unfortunately, North Carolina isn't the only state in which the organization has had problems. It has been castigated by officials in several other states, including Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Florida and Wisconsin.

Those who've suggested there was voter suppression at work often started their coverage from the assumption that the calls were directed at the primary. In fact, the calls were part of a campaign aimed at 24 states in total, and they were intended to boost voter registration in general. The calls had nothing to do with the primary, and the registration deadline the group says it really cared about -- the one for the general election -- won't pass until this fall. Admittedly, the call itself did not specify this, and it should have. But even so, this still isn't an after-the-fact assertion by WVWV. The group had made its purpose clear even before the controversy began. In a letter Gardner sent April 24 to the executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, she explained the purpose of the mailings intended to follow the robo-calls and wrote, "Unfortunately, North Carolina residents will receive this mail after the deadline for registering to vote to participate in the upcoming primary election. Please be aware that the mailing is not intended to encourage registration specifically for the primary, but simply to encourage voter registration in general."

On OpenLeft, blogger Matt Stoller provided some detail about why WVWV had timed the calls the way it did. (For purposes of full disclosure, it's worth mentioning that one of Stoller's partners in founding OpenLeft was Mike Lux, who is a board member at WVWV and an Obama supporter.) Stoller published an e-mail he received from Becky Bond, who works for CREDO Mobile, a brand of Working Assets, which Bond says has funded WVWV "since it started." In her e-mail, Bond wrote:

there is always a spike in voter registration around primaries AFTER the registration deadline has passed. this is the best time to register voters. research confirms this. around primaries people are reminded that they need to register in time for the general. WVWV has done a lot of research in this area. they know when people are most likely to register. unfortunately, what makes sense in registering the largest aggregate number of voters for the general election at the lowest cost is having a confusing effect in the N.C. primary which is hotly contested and very charged.

On Wednesday, TPM published Gardner's letter, and Kiel wrote a post in which he linked to it. Even with the letter in hand, though, Kiel headlined his very next post "Group Missed Oregon Primary Deadline, Too," and wrote about a mailer in Oregon that "arrived just as the deadline to register in Oregon's presidential primary passed," adding, "That's been a persistent problem for the group, not only in North Carolina, but also in Virginia and Wisconsin ... So while the spokeswoman for the group told me that the North Carolina calls and mailers were a mix up, it seems that the group has gotten mixed up a number of times before." On TPM's main page, Marshall linked to Kiel's post and wrote, "Seems the group flubbed the deadline in Oregon too."

Believing that WVWV was trying to suppress votes in North Carolina requires something of a leap of faith. You could, for instance, believe that Clinton allies had created the group as a front, and had spent years working to register voters across the country so that, when Clinton finally ran for president four years after the group was founded, they could pervert the electoral process to help their candidate. Or you could believe that at some point Clinton allies began manipulating the group and WVWV conducted drives in 23 states other than North Carolina -- some of which had already held their nominating contests by the time the mailings went out -- in order to mask wrongdoing they planned for one state, maybe even a few states.

But these conclusions -- or any other conclusion that WVWV was actively trying to hurt Obama and help Clinton -- conflict with quite a bit of available evidence that suggests WVWV is no Clinton front. On Feb. 13, the group put out a press release declaring proudly that unmarried women were a "powerful component of the dramatic young (under 30) and female turnout" in the Maryland and Virginia Democratic primaries, which Obama won. Not long before the South Carolina primary -- which Obama also won -- WVWV put out a different press release, this one about the importance of unmarried African-American women in the 2008 election. Then there's Ron Rosenblith, the husband of WVWV founder Gardner. His company, Integral Resources, has done telemarketing work for WVWV and for the Democratic Party. It has also worked for the Obama campaign, which recently submitted to the Federal Election Commission an amended October quarterly report showing that it owed the company more than $140,000. And while it is true that there are Clinton supporters on the group's board -- and that Maggie Williams, Clinton's current chief of staff, previously worked with the group -- there are Obama supporters there as well, including Lux and William McNary. Responding to the controversy on the Huffington Post, McNary wrote:

In this election, I am supporting Barack Obama, whom I've known and worked with for years. I am also an elected delegate to the Democratic Convention for Barack Obama.

Given my candidate preference and my background and associations in voter registration efforts, I can say with great conviction, there was no effort to suppress or confuse African American voters, or any other voters in the state of North Carolina by Women's Voices, Women Vote ... There may have been mistakes made in this particular registration drive in North Carolina, but Women's Voices, Women Vote's motives were not malicious or intended in any way to confuse voters. Ironically, just the opposite. I know the staff is making every effort to right the situation.

Stoller has been a harsh critic of those who've suggested deliberate wrongdoing by WVWV. In one post, Stoller wrote:

Josh Marshall in particular has been flogging this story without context, implying some sort of nefarious subplot here despite WVWV's long track record of registering unmarried women and statements from both Obama and Clinton supporters validating their work. WVWV has worked with the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, and is a highly respected organization that does real data-driven voter registration ...

I believe this is the lowest point I have ever seen the blogosphere sink. There is no reason whatsoever for this mob mentality to go after one of the most important voter registration efforts out there designed to empower women ... There is simply no motive here for voter suppression. If WVWV was trying to suppress votes in North Carolina for Clinton or Obama, why would they also be doing this work in 24 states at the same time? If they are such an evil anti-progressive group, why would they award 'female blogger of the year to Digby' and run ads encouraging women to vote?

On Wednesday, at the main TPM site, Marshall asked, "Does that group doing voter-suppression calls in North Carolina have ties to the Clinton campaign?" (He later updated the post to walk back any implicit suggestion that there was "Clinton campaign complicity in the group's activities.") Three hours after he wrote that post, Marshall published a new one, this one titled "Keystone (cops) Voter Registration." In it, he acknowledged, "We've looked into the group's activities in other states and at least outside of North Carolina it's really difficult to figure out whether the group was up to no good or just mind-numbingly incompetent ... Setting aside the incidents in North Carolina, that we're still looking into, it seems like in the rest of the country the group was involved in legitimate voter-registration efforts for a targeted group even though they went about it in a heavy-handed way and sometimes confused voters by failing to note key registration deadlines."

It was good of Marshall to acknowledge that. But even considering the pace of the blogosphere, the responsible, ethical thing to do would have been to wait before flatly stating that voter suppression was going on. It's not even as if he would have had to wait that long: Within just three hours after Marshall said WVWV was "doing voter-suppression calls," he was able to report that -- even if he still believed there might be some wrongdoing afoot in the North Carolina calls -- the pattern of WVWV's recent activities nationally was one of incompetence, not malevolence.

On Thursday, I spoke to a seemingly irritated Marshall and asked him whether he stood by his stories. Marshall responded, "Yeah. I mean, what is there not to stand behind?"

- - - - -

Wired Blog on WVWV robocaller Lamont Williams:

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/05/calling-on-lamo.html

- - - - -

The North Carolina NAACP has filed a formal complaint of possible voter suppression against Women's Voices Women Vote, the D.C. nonprofit that as we revealed earlier this week was behind the deceptive and illegal robo-calls made to state residents. The N.C. NAACP hand-delivered its complaint today to state Attorney General Roy Cooper and State Board of Elections Executive Director Gary Bartlett. It's also alerted the U.S. Department of Justice that it's collecting more information from its national network and is contemplating filing a formal complaint with that agency.

Be the change you wish to see in the world. --Gandhi
Pointing at Naked Emperors