“Attorney General Says Robo Calls Are Illegal”
Democracy North Carolina is interested in hearing about your reaction if you received a mailing or the illegal robo call made by "Women's Voices, Women's Vote" (WVWV). The calls often used the voice of a "Lamont Williams." If you received such a call, please report it at 1-888-OUR VOTE at Democracy For NC's Office.
According to a press release from the NC Attorney General's office - " The robo-calls told residents that they would be receiving a voter registration form in the mail that they needed to sign. But the deadline to register by mail has passed, and some call recipients already were registered, causing confusion...these robocalls appear to have been made in violation of N.C.G.S. § 75-104. Failure to comply with this statute subjects the offender to civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation, and individuals who receive these unlawful calls may separately recover statutory damages in the same amounts. N.C.G.S. § 75-105."
An estimated 182,236 illegal robo calls have been made in North Carolina.
Facing South leads the investigation:
North Carolina is one of many states targeted with misleading voter registration information. Chris Kromm Facing South ...The NAACP has filed a formal complaint. N.C. residents have reported receiving peculiar automated calls from someone claiming to be "Lamont Williams." The caller says that a "voter registration packet" is coming in the mail, and the recipient can sign it and mail it back to be registered to vote and then they can vote....Read more at the link But they seem to be targeting primarily African American voters, male and female
Women's Voices has been conducting a robo-call and mailing campaign in NC that the state Attorney General has confirmed is illegal, that has been secretive and deceptive, and will likely have the effect of confusing and discouraging North Carolina voters.....Women's Voices is made up of some of the most seasoned and sophisticated political operatives in Washington." "Facing South" also revealed that North Carolina wasn't an isolated incident; that Women's Voices had been charged with carrying out confusing, legally questionable, and deceptive voter registration tactics in 10 other states.
The next primary states getting mailings and or robo calls
The group's president Page Gardner, said that to clear up any further confusion, the group "went to Herculean efforts" to stop the mailings in states that still have upcoming primaries.
The states are:
Kentucky – Primary Day: May 20, 2008.
Montana – Republican Presidential Preference Caucus: February 5, Democratic Primary: June 3, 2008
Oregon – Primary Day: May 20, 2008
South Dakota – Primary Day: June 3, 2008
West Virginia – Republican Caucus: February 5, 2008, Democratic Primary: May 13, 2008.
More info at NC Voter or Facing South
- NCVoter's blog
- Login or register to post comments
- Email this page
What about mailings?
An employee at the Chapel Hill Whole Foods got a mailing telling her that her voter registration had expired (I'm not yet sure of the exact contents of the mailing, but she says she'll give it to me). Are there other reports of this? Or is the only issue phone calls?
Thanks
-- ge
Besta é tu se você não viver nesse mundo
http://george.entenman.name
please report mailings too
reports of the mailings should be reported to the 888 number. I didn't mention them in the OP because I was focusing on the statute against robo calls.
(I could have written this thing alot better.)
There is a clear cut violation of the law with the robo calls, but the investigation continues into the mailings as well.