The Virginia Pilot is reporting on the distribution of a phony flier being sent around the Hampton Roads area.
Granny Doc is also reporting on this.
A phony State Board of Elections flier advising Republicans to vote on Nov. 4 and Democrats on Nov. 5 is being circulated in several Hampton Roads localities, according to state elections officials.
To view a copy of the flier, click here (same link as story).
The flier ranks right up there with the phony PayPal or Ebay emails that want you to click a link and verify your password - easy to spot because of all the misspellings:
The somewhat official-looking flier - it features the state board logo and the state seal - is dated Oct. 24 and indicates that "an emergency session of the General Assembly has adopted the follwing (sic) emergency regulations to ease the load on local electorial (sic) precincts and ensure a fair electorial process."
This would be funny if it weren't another in a long list of efforts to sabotage the vote.
The ironic thing to me about this is the comments left by the more vocal readers of the Virginia Pilot. Republican readers are basically saying, "Nothing to see here folks, move along." If this flyer were put out saying that Republicans should vote on 5 November and Democrats vote on 4 November, you can bet your last dollar these same commenters would be screaming voter fraud from the rooftops.
Personally, I don't see this lame attempt as having any traction in our state (that's going to be a deep shade of blue on Election Day), but I do hope the originator of these fliers is caught and prosecuted.
In 2007, the General Assembly passed a law making it a Class 1 misdemeanor to knowingly communicate false information to registered voters about the date, time and place of the election or voters' precincts, polling places or voter registration statuses in order to impede their voting. The measure is one of the few such deceptive voting practice laws in the country, according to the watchdog group Common Cause.
It never ceases to amaze me that the party who claims to be the most patriotic is the one behind these types of tactics.