WVWV scandal: Who is Lamont Williams? With Poll!!

Last night I posted a diary discussing various ways in which Women's Voices. Women Vote was engaging in a cover up about its voter suppression/confusion activities in North Carolina.  I pointed specifically to salon.com's piece that swallowed hook, line, and sinker many half truths being spread by WVWV.

The Salon piece (which is so good for WVWV that they're linking to it on their home page now) also contradicted Sarah Johnson's answers to Adam B's questions on Daily Kos on Thursday.  

For instance, it mentions NOTHING about the second, female robocall (that nobody has complained about or even heard), blithely claiming for the first time, anywhere, that 182,236 Lamont Williams calls went out.  It also claims that North Carolina residents got all the calls, even though they told us that calls were received LAST WEEK in all 24 states that their mailings went to.

Well, Wiredpublished an article yesterday in which they failed to locate Lamont Williams among the major voice talent databases.  It's a decent article, although it takes the issue far too likely.  It, like the Koppelman piece in Salon, makes no mentions of Sarah Johnson's promise to the Virginia Pilot that they would cease their use of anonymous robocalls nationally.

Here are just four of my, many, many unanswered questions for WVWV:

1. Who EXACTLY is Lamont Williams and why did you choose him as your caller, and have him use his name but not WVWV's or the Voter Participation Center's name?

2. Who was the female caller, how many households did she reach in North Carolina and elsewhere LAST WEEK, and can you please IMMEDIATELY let us hear her call?

3. What firm did you use to make these calls?

4. Why are you letting your spokesperson plant false or misleading information in Salon, then linking to the article on your website, before your board has the chance to hold its emergency meeting and get to the bottom of all this?

•  Tips welcome

  As are recommends.  We need to keep on this - there's a LOT that they're not telling us.

  by jakester on Sat May 03, 2008 at 06:48:46 AM PDT

  •  Lamont Williams is the stage name of a voice acto

    by wren on Sat May 03, 2008 at 07:36:39 AM PDT

    •  the computer ae my comment

      actor.

      There is too much plausible deniablility to amke a case for voter surpression. What is clear and indisputable is that WVWV has violated the law repeatedly in several states and gotten away by apoplgizing. That measn they will contiue since behavior tht is ot punished will continue.
      So rather than get inot conspiracy theory territory and discredit oneself, it is more sensible to focus on insisting that this time they get prosecuted.

      Forcu on what's provable: they broke the law.  Prosecute them and they will be discreditied and stop.

      by wren on Sat May 03, 2008 at 07:40:20 AM PDT

•  For sure

  We need to keep on it. It's so telling that NPR is the only news source to have covered this thoroughly.

  by LaKathie on Sat May 03, 2008 at 07:03:24 AM PDT

•  Thank you for your hard work!

  by marsbardem on Sat May 03, 2008 at 07:03:34 AM PDT

  •  you're welcome

    Tomorrow will be my big diary about the obvious cover up that's going on.  Planting misleading stories in salon.com is one thing, but to plant it in a tiny newspaper in Craig, Colorado is just silly and obvious.

    by jakester on Sat May 03, 2008 at 07:05:37 AM PDT

    •  Looking forward to it!

      Great post yesterday.  Keep digging, you're in the lead with the simple question: "WTF?".

      by kafkananda on Sat May 03, 2008 at 07:32:56 AM PDT

•  Again, there is no there, there

  Every political campaign and non-profit running robo calls in NC "breaks the law".

  by shimane on Sat May 03, 2008 at 07:08:06 AM PDT

  •  Shaun where is "breaks the law" in my diary

    I'm writing about the cover up here, I made no mention of the NC Attorney General investigation, nor did I say the robocalls were illegal.  I think my questions are quite fair and go to the heart of this matter.

    Who was the female caller, why is their spokesperson giving out contradictory information, and what states did they robocall last Thursday and Friday?

    You're now shilling for WVWV.  It's not pretty.

    by jakester on Sat May 03, 2008 at 07:12:55 AM PDT

  •  What a complete <i>non sequitur</i>

    First of all, the diary ain't about breking the law.

    Second, according to the NC AG, and on the basis of the known facts, WVWV did in fact break the law.

    Third, it is not at all true that "[e]very political campaign and non-profit running robo-calls in NC 'breaks the law.'"  As long as a group discloses itself, provides contact information, and doesn't misrepresent the law, it is perfectly free to conduct robo-calls in NC.  WVWV's calls failed on each and every score.

    Fourth, while there are no known instances of other groups placing anonymous, false and misleading calls in NC during this primary, it would not exonerate WVWV even if it were true that other groups also broke the law.  

    by sdangerfield on Sat May 03, 2008 at 09:08:28 AM PDT

•  I just talked to Lamont Williams the other day!!

  by brettjay on Sat May 03, 2008 at 07:08:15 AM PDT

  •  Yeah, Lamont

    Kind of tall for a short guy?  With that long-ish short-ish curly/straight hair?  Sort of heavy set for a skinny guy?  Yeah, I think I know Lamont.

    by Capn Guts on Sat May 03, 2008 at 08:06:39 AM PDT

•  VR Pro Endorses Jakester's GREAT Work!!!

  Jakester's persistent work on this issue has been comprehensive and MUCH appreciated. I posted a (High Impact) Diary on this issue a few days ago, the substance of which is repeated below. I haven't had the ability to stay on top of this like Jakester has, so I'm posting this with an invitation for Jakester to use/reprint/follow up on any of it that he finds useful.  I have especially NOT seen any substantive follow up on the issues raised in question 1, 2, and 3 (below).

  Thanks again for your GREAT work! The Diary text follows:

  I can appreciate the difficulties in managing a national Voter Registration (VR) campaign.  I once managed a California VR campaign that registered over 200,000 voters, and the logistics were monumental, even with just one set of state VR rules.  That said, the problems faced by the organization responsible for the North Carolina robo-call operation defies explanation. The reportage by Facing South in uncovering this organization (Women's Voices -- Women Vote) has been nothing short of exceptional.

  To begin, voter registration professionals take their responsibilities VERY seriously.  The obligation that is assumed by voter registrars is akin to the fiduciary obligation taken on by financial planners -- voting is sacred and you can't screw it up. When registrars take on the responsibility to register voters, like a doctor, the first responsibility is to "Do no harm."

  I find it inconceivable that an organization that has successfully registered so many other voters in other campaigns could have so monumentally screwed this up.

  UPDATE: I've read a couple other diaries with explanations for WVWV's tactics.

  1. WVWV says: "They also register AA & Hispanics," but today their spokesman had no idea why "Lamont Williams" was making the calls in NC? This was a big and expensive operation & their spokesperson didn't know who the target was? It seems unlikely.

  2. WVWV says: "VR often happens right after primaries because signups spike then." Sure, but then make the phone calls & send the mailing AFTER the primary, not in the gap between the mail-in registration deadline & the election, discouraging registered voters from voting & diverting unregistered voters from taking advantage of same-day registration/early voting opportunities.

  Here are my unanswered questions about this operation:

   1. WVWV is extremely well funded and is staffed by political pros who follow politics. When the North Carolina problems erupted, why didn't WVWV come forward and take responsibility? Why did they have to be outed by Facing South? Assuming they knew (like I did by reading the news) of the chaos going on in North Carolina, if what was going on was a straight up VR campaign then why did they continue operating covertly after it went bad?  The same question applies when problems erupted with WVWV campaigns in other states.  Was WVWV simply unaware that they were creating havoc across the country? I find that VERY hard to believe.

   2. What's with the blocked caller I.D. & no identification of the organization in the robo-calls?  Oops?  Unlikely.  This is a 501c3, and as such they are always looking for visibility, because visibility translates into support and funding. As Page Gardner's appearances on Youtube demonstrate, she knows she's in the visibility business. It is unthinkable that WVWV would run Robo-Calls (which are very expensive) without identifying themselves, unless they didn't want to be identified. Frankly, I've never seen a VR organization that didn't want to take credit for its activities. The only reason I can think of for why they wouldn't want to be identified is if they had something to hide.

  3. What's with all the legal screwups? The language of the calls neglects to inform voters of other ways they can register (like one-stop registration/voting), and the calls themselves were illegal due to the lack of organizational identification. VR is a legal intensive business. In all states that I know of, it's a crime to make claims that you're registering voters and then screw it up (intentionally or otherwise). Consequently, lawyers are ALWAYS involved in reviewing literature, making sure claims are accurate, that claims are complete, that deadlines are being met, and otherwise ensuring that in all ways the group conducting the VR campaign is avoiding legal liabilities. ...and with inevitable legal reviews, the idea that WVWV didn't know full well that they were stepping all over the primary election registration deadline in North Carolina is laughable.  Again, this organization is run by political pros.  Either their lawyers committed malpractice, or their lawyers were complicit in voter supression, or they didn't have a legal review because they knew they were involved in activities that wouldn't pass muster, or they are the most incompetent VR campaign in the history of multi-million dollar VR campaigns.

  4. What's with "Lamont" being the James Earl Jones-like "voice" to encourage single women to vote? This doesn't even pass the giggle test. Julia Louis-Dreyfuss is their public spokesperson, but "Lamont Williams" is the voice of this campaign to register single women? Other than Tyrone, I doubt that I could think of a name that is more prototypically AA than Lamont. I will be fascinated when others examine the call lists of WVWV to see exactly what, if anything, these specific call lists had to do with registering single women.

  5. As noted above, why the repeated (in several states) timing of the calls & mailers to conflict with primary election registration deadlines, if not to deliberately cause confusion and suppress the vote by encouraging people to think they weren't registered to vote?

  6. The Julia Louis-Dreyfuss ad & the Executive Director's CNN interview (on YouTube) leave little doubt that this group is very sympathetic to the Hillary Clinton campaign.

   7. Many of the staff/counsel for this group seem to have extensive connections to previous Clinton campaign/polling/war room operations.

  Several posters on Huffington Post and DailyKos are vouching for WVWV, claiming that "This organization is real!!! They register real voters!!!" But I don't see why that can't be true, simultaneous to the fact that the organization might ALSO have been hijacked as a front for plausibly deniable black-ops voter supression efforts.

  In sum, it seems to me that at best this organization has been criminally negligent, and at worst they've simply been criminal.

  Having run large scale VR programs myself, I find it inconceivable that WVWV could apparently run some VR programs quite well, and others (like the VA and NC robo-call fiascos) in such catastrophically disasterous ways.  Especially as I watch what some of HRC's 527s are capable of, I just don't buy that this was an unfortunately timed, incompetent VR effort that just coincidentally has the effect of suppressing voters who are disproportiontely likely to support Obama.

  As my father used to say: If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck....  Somebody's probably getting ducked.

  by The Knute on Sat May 03, 2008 at 08:48:56 AM PDT

•  Sorry, I can't vote in your poll.

  You didn't include Louise ("Weezy") Sanford among the choices.  

  by sdangerfield on Sat May 03, 2008 at 09:01:37 AM PDT

  •  Sorry, that should be 'Jefferson' not 'Sanford'

    by sdangerfield on Sat May 03, 2008 at 09:30:56 AM PDT