Concerning The Philadelphia Inquirer’s story about a “voter alert!” going out to New Jersey voters in a local election, the following statement was just released by Michael Drewniak, Public Affairs Officer of the U.S. Attorney’s office in New Jersey:
A story published in Sunday’s Philadelphia Inquirer which said the U.S. Attorney’s Office flooded Camden with taped phone messages warning against buying votes in that city’s recent election was false. Neither the U.S. Attorney’s Office or the Voting Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice had any role in the phone-message blitz.As U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie noted, the U.S. Attorney’s Office would never engage in such a practice, which clearly could have been used as a voter-suppression tactic. The U.S. Attorney’s Office was not contacted to authenticate the matter or comment for the story, which implied the office sanctioned or was the source of the recorded phone-message blitz.
The Inquirer’s story contained a transcript of the call, which cleverly gave the impression of coming from the U.S. attorney’s office, while not actually saying that it was:
“Voters alert!” said the taped message. “Please note that it is a federal crime to be paid for a vote. I repeat, it is a crime. If you or your neighbor have been offered payment, please report it immediately to the U.S. Attorney’s Office at 856-757-5026.”
So now the question is: who paid for the robo calling? And where else have such robo calls been used?