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Monday, November 3, 2008

Guard Yourself, Officials Say, from Inevitable Dirty Tricks



By: Denise Stewart

In the hours before Election Day, as inevitable as winter, comes an onslaught of dirty tricks - confusing e-mails, disturbing phone calls and insinuating fliers left on doorsteps during the night.

The intent, almost always, is to keep folks from voting or to confuse them, usually through intimidation or misinformation. But in this presidential race, in which a black man leads most polls, some of the deceit has a decidedly racist bent.

Complaints have surfaced in predominantly African-American neighborhoods of Philadelphia where fliers have circulated, warning voters they could be arrested at the polls if they had unpaid parking tickets or if they had criminal convictions.

Some Hampton Roads, Virginia residents received offical-looking fliers last week that said if they were Democrats, they could vote on Wednesday, Nov. 5, instead of Tuesday to avoid the long lines.

Distribution of the fliers, just one of several reported attempts to deceive and suppress voter participation among Democrats across the country, is being investigated by Virginia state officials.

Voting rights activists say that as Election Day nears, the Virginia flier is a reminder that voters, regardless of their party affiliation, should be mindful of attempts to prevent them from exercising their constitutional right.

“Usually, it’s in the last 72 hours before the election that we start seeing the dirty tricks,” said Melanie Campbell, executive director of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing Black civic engagement and voter participation.

Guard Yourself, Officials Say, from Inevitable Dirty Tricks....

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