The second way to get more votes than your opponent is to keep people from voting for her. This can take the form of persuading people that if Candidate X wins, then the terrorists will have won, or that Candidate Y is planning to take all of your money and give it to crazy hippies, and yes, convincing people that Candidate Z is out to build America into a Christianist theocracy. You can also point out that Candidates X, Y, and Z are all beholden to special interests, of questionable character, friends of bad people, or all of the above -- and you may even be right.
That's not the fun side of politics, but it's not evil, either. But there are most certainly evil ways to accomplish the act of driving down your opponent's vote totals. A classic is simple: misdirection. Put up signs reminding people to vote on Wednesday, or send out fliers reminding people that they must bring $50 cash for their poll tax when they cast their ballots. Or if you don't want to go with those old standbys, you can set up robocalls advising voters that they should send their packet in before they vote next Tuesday, without mentioning that they don't actually have to send a packet back to vote if they're already registered.
You may recognize that last one; it appears to have been deployed last week, in North Carolina among other states. It was targeted at African-American voters. And the perpetrators were progressives working to advance the voices of women in politics.
Women's Voices, Women Vote has done good work in trying to reach out to unmarried female voters. And if you're a Democrat, that's a good thing. Unmarried women are a key underrepresented Democratic constituency, and getting more of them to the polls is a good thing.
As part of that outreach, WVWV ran a robocall last week that had the following script:
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 sign it, date it 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. (Audio)
WVWV says they were working to register new voters, and they're right -- they were indeed sending out voter registration packets to people throughout North Carolina. There are a few problems, though. First of all, you notice that the call makes no allowance for people who are already registered to vote. It says, flatly, that you must sign and date your packet and return it by mail, then you will be able to vote. If you're a voter unfamiliar with the process, you may come away from this call thinking you have to send in this extra packet before you can vote.
Second, the call doesn't note that this packet won't get you registered for the primary. Primary registration is closed at this point. Now, there's nothing wrong with trying to get people registered for November -- indeed, it's critical -- but given that the election on everyone's mind right now is days, not months away, it's a rather glaring omission.
Third, the call had no identifying information -- no call-back number, no "Authorized and paid for" disclaimer -- nada.
Fourth, the call comes from a "Lamont Williams." Who is Lamont Williams? A professional voice talent, according to WVWV. Now, that may be, although a Google search for "Lamont Williams Voice Talent" comes up empty, save for blogs talking about this call. But Lamont is a more typically African-American name than, say, Jeff, and given that the call was going to African-American households, it beggars belief to think that isn't the intent.
Now, much has been made about ties between WVWV and the Clinton campaign. But nobody has advanced any evidence that the Clinton campaign bears responsibility for this. I think it's silly to try to pin this directly on Hillary Clinton, or on her campaign.
But was this an act of attempted voter suppression? If it isn't, it's the least competent voter outreach program in American history. The call was confusing, poorly worded, and oddly targeted. It was lacking in information it was legally supposed to have, and would be utterly unlikely to actually result in any positive action. If this call had been run by the GOP I'd have no doubt.
WVWV maintains the calls were an honest mistake, that they didn't think of these questions ahead of time. I suppose that's barely possible, but frankly, that doesn't speak well of them either. It's not just that these calls were confusing; the fact that they were made to a community that has been historically disenfranchised using tactics similar to this is deeply troubling. Even assuming WVWV is telling the truth, that tells us that nobody in the organization thought about the implications of an unidentified robocall going to hundreds of thousands if not millions of African-American households, giving out election information that was muddled, at best.
In the vicious downward spiral of the primary, it is perhaps natural that this has become a weapon wielded against the Clinton campaign. But we shouldn't set our sights so low. The fact is that this debacle signals yet again that at best, there are vast swathes of the progressive movement blind to the other members of the coalition, ignorant of the struggles their fellow progressives have had to undergo. And at worst, there are members of this progressive coalition willing to throw their fellow progressives under the bus if it will advance their cause. I know, that shouldn't come as a surprise at this point. But it's a disappointment nonetheless.
