WVWV still confusing voters... In Oregon

Late last month, thousands of African American voters received robocalls with confusing, and probably illegal, messaging about the upcoming elections. It turns out that a group called Women's Voices, Women Vote as responsible for these and other election problems. In spite of multiple complaints, the saga continues with fresh problems reported in Oregon.

As published this week in the local Willamette Week paper, Women's Voices, Women Vote managed to earn the "Rogue of the Week" award - not only for sending their typical barrage of confusing and contradictory letters, but for refusing to respond to complaints by the Attorney General for the past YEAR:

Thousands more registered Oregon voters have been just as confused by WVWV letters since last year, according to Secretary of State Bill Bradbury. His office has been calling and sending "please-stop-doing-this-you’re-insane" letters since then to WVWV, according to Bradbury spokesman Scott Moore.

The message is, "Assuming your intentions are good, you’re causing more harm than good," Moore says.

"They’ve been completely unresponsive," Moore says. "It’s an absolute nightmare."

I'm curious why law enforcement seems completely unable to address these problems when so much of it appears to be illegal.

•  Ugh!

  This is the most ridiculous crap I have ever seen in my entire life!!!!!! Seriously, how are they getting away with this? Can they have their license revoked??

  What a fucking sham.

  by islandinthesun on Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:39:25 AM PDT

•  they know exactly what they are doing

  and they don't care.

  by MadAsHellMaddie on Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:40:33 AM PDT

•  What exactly was the timing of this?

  We need to be perfectly clear whether this is new reports of the original round of calls... or subsequent calls AFTER they were chastised and said they would stop.

  by pat208 on Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:40:38 AM PDT

  •  April 29th

    was when the letter referenced in the Willamette Week arrived.

    by Saska on Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:42:21 AM PDT

    •  That's part of the same set, then ...

      .... as NC, WV and KY.

      by Adam B on Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:49:42 AM PDT

      •  Go Hillary

        She said she would do ANYTHING to win.   Her supporters are just following her lead.  

        by ruscle on Thu May 15, 2008 at 12:01:59 PM PDT

        •  I still don't believe that's the case.

          The facts are much more aligned with indifference to the deadlines, or a mistaken belief that this post-deadline pre-primary window was a fertile ground for voter registration with (a mistaken believe in) minimal resulting voter confusion, than it is with a deliberate plot.  Why do this in West Virginia if that's the case?

          by Adam B on Thu May 15, 2008 at 12:04:55 PM PDT

•  They know they'll never get penalized for

  what they're doing, so they continue to do it.  It'd be interesting to audit them and see where their money is coming from...

  by darthstar on Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:43:31 AM PDT

•  How in the hell do these

  a-holes not get in trouble for this? Prosecuted?

  by swtexas on Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:43:43 AM PDT

•  All you can do

  Is what Bradbury's done, which is to tell them to stop being so f-ing stupid.  Unfortunately in a democracy, we have to put up with the sort of sh-t wfrom time to time.  What they're doing iss not illegal, just dishonest.

  by skywaker9 on Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:43:49 AM PDT

  •  Some of it is illegal

    According to the NC Attorney General, the robocalls there were indeed illegal. I believe some of the stunts in other states were also illegal.

    Certainly some if it isn't illegal, though much more of their crap should be than is.

    by netgecko99 on Thu May 15, 2008 at 01:47:08 PM PDT

•  Investigation during GE

  after stalling off folks for months, even a year it seems, now we will get a GE investigation against Dems

  now that will be great especially since this is perceived to be linked to Dems through HRC

  dangerous

  by jhpdb on Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:45:38 AM PDT

•  Title: WVWV, not WMWV. n/t

  by Michael D on Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:46:26 AM PDT

  •  Fortunately...

    I think everyone interested in this issue will know what the author was referring to.

    I want Page Gardner in prison.

    by Joe Beese on Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:59:13 AM PDT

  •  Arrrr!!

    Typo corrected. Thanks!

    by netgecko99 on Thu May 15, 2008 at 01:47:59 PM PDT

•  So they're pretty much batting 1000 now, eh? n/t

  by gihrose on Thu May 15, 2008 at 11:52:17 AM PDT

•  When I wrote about WVWV on MyDD...

  ... Jerome Armstrong removed my post from the rec list and warned me for alleged "racist comments," eventually banning me for writing another diary about WVWV's actions.

  Well, it ends yp that Jerome's PR firm has WVWV as a client.

  Hilarious. And pathetic.

  by Bob Johnson on Thu May 15, 2008 at 12:02:00 PM PDT

  •  Can someone tell me

    whats going on in Armstrong's head? Why doesn't he just drop Clinton, stop ruining her name and go republican?

    by DemocraticCitizenSoul on Thu May 15, 2008 at 12:28:42 PM PDT

    •  He is such a pathetic hack.

      First, for such a prominent blogger, he has translucent, microscopically-thin skin. The slightest criticism leads him to lash out in anger like a four-year-old.

      Second, he's not a straight shooter. The fact that his firm has a contract to do online PR work for Women's Voice/Women Vote, along with the fact that he has not disclosed this tie, accompanied by his heavy-handed censorship about this newsworthy, relevant and critical issue on his blog, tells you all you need to know about his ethics or lack thereof.

      It is not the first time the guy has had issues with ethics and honesty.

      He is a sad, sad case...

      by Bob Johnson on Thu May 15, 2008 at 12:36:08 PM PDT

  •  MyDD...

    I haven't been at all impressed with MyDD. Jerome doesn't even come close to embodying the sense of intelligence and fairness that I expect from a reliable source of information.

    by netgecko99 on Thu May 15, 2008 at 01:49:33 PM PDT

•  I thought WVWV was under investigation

  They don't seem to be able to take hints from cease and desist orders from state AG offices.

  I hope to see criminal indictments and civil lawsuits against the organization and the people running it. The WVWV Board of Directors is either in the tank for Hillary or letting their organization run on autopilot.

  Perhaps it's RICO Act time for them. It is time for WVWV to disappear from the political landscape.

  by alizard on Thu May 15, 2008 at 12:24:30 PM PDT

•  Your title has the acronym wrong. n/t

  by The Distillery on Thu May 15, 2008 at 12:26:25 PM PDT

•  post at openleft

  Mike Lux is one of the site founders, and is on the board of wvwv.  He has responded in the past.

  by Winston Sm1th on Thu May 15, 2008 at 12:29:48 PM PDT

  •  WVWV has responded

    So far they've said all kinda of things. Then changed their mind. Then said something else.

    I don't trust anything they put out any more.

    by netgecko99 on Thu May 15, 2008 at 01:51:17 PM PDT

•  They are the Japanese soldiers...

  ... of the 2008 primary season.  They'll still be fighting in December.  Obama will have finished his second term, and they'll still be breaking out the crazy.

  Share your dreams.

  by BKuhl on Thu May 15, 2008 at 01:00:55 PM PDT

•  WVWV's Work in Oregon

  Women’s Voices. Women Vote has registered 600,000 voters since it began in 2004, including 8,771 in Oregon in 2008 alone. In order to register new voters, we try to make registration as convenient as possible, meaning we mail registration forms directly to people’s homes.  We have seen our efforts reach thousands who would not otherwise be enfranchised.  

  Inevitably, some errors occur in the mailing list we cross check with the official state voter roll– someone’s name is listed differently, an address has changed, etc., and an already registered voter inadvertently receives a registration mailing.  But this is an extremely small percentage of the total number of people we contact.  

  To guard against confusion, the mail we send includes a notice for anyone who believes he or she may already be registered: it states that if you are unsure whether you are already registered, you can go online to check your registration status (websites vary by state), and if you are certain that you are already registered, you can simply ignore our mail.  Inevitably, a very small number of those we contact may already be registered.  Our goal is to reach the tens of thousands of people who do register for the first time with our forms – people who would not otherwise be able to vote, and through our efforts become part of the democratic process. Our goal is to reach the tens of thousands of people who do register for the first time with our forms – people who would not otherwise be able to vote, and through our efforts become part of the democratic process.  

  What we do regret is sending the most recent mailing, aimed at general election registration, in between the deadline for primary election registration and the day of the Democratic primary in several states.  This happened because we were mailing to 24 states, with a goal of registering people for the general election in November.  

  Given that the current primary election is very highly charged, we have decided that it would be best to avoid contact with potential voters until after their local primary.  

  Once the primary season is over, we look forward to continuing our work to register potential new voters in Oregon.  We remain deeply committed to ensuring that as many people as possible are able to exercise their right to vote this November.

  by PageGardner on Fri May 16, 2008 at 08:41:17 AM PDT

  •  Nice form letter, but...

    Can you explain why you did not engage with the Oregon Secretary of State to resolve these problems last year when they were first brought to your attention?

    For that matter, why has your organization repeated the same mistakes after promising to correct them?

    For example, Sarah Johnson, your communications director, promised in February to change your nationwide phone alerts to identify the source of your automated phone calls after complaints in Virginia. Then in April, you generated a new rash of complaints in North Carolina for failing to identify the source of your automated phone calls.

    It seems that if your interest was in legitimately registering voters rather than trying to aid your political allies, you would work in cooperation with the state authorities rather than ignoring them and continuing to cause more problems.

    by netgecko99 on Mon May 19, 2008 at 01:47:47 PM PDT