Obama Campaign Vote Tampering

Impersonating Voting Officials, Misleading about early voting

Via the Weekly Standard, from the Tampa Bay Times, comes a story about Organizing for America being naughty naughty when it comes to Florida voting.  There are two parts of this story.  One of them should result in criminal charges against an OFA staffer, and one... is a little more ambiguous.

In the first, at least one OFA Staffer was representing himself as an Elections official.  That is, impersonating a State official.  This came to light when he informed a currently anonymous Florida voter that there was some problem with her voter registration.  She complained to the Elections Office.  Needless to say, this staffer should be immediately fired and prosecuted.  The sovereign franchise is one of our most sacred privileges; it must be defended vigorously.

In the second, OFA is calling voters with a "script" which is urging them to vote early.  The Elections Office has reported people coming in, based on OFA phone calls, looking to vote early, but early voting does not begin until October 27 in Florida.  The only reason this is not clear-cut is that OFA claims they're using a script which is telling people they can request absentee ballots and fill them out immediately at the Elections Office, which is something they can do.  The Tampa Bay Times says they obtained a copy of the script, and that it does not contain the term "early voting."  They have not released a copy of the script.

In both cases, they're out of line.  The first is obvious criminal activity, and such things only occur when an employer provides and environment which allows employees to think that such behavior is acceptable.  The second may be purely accidental, but the script should be reworked immediately to be more clear in that case.  I suspect it is deliberately vague in an attempt to suppress votes.