« previous | MUCK HOME | next »
EDITED: Calls Give Wrong Polling Location To Virginia Voter
NOTE: This post has been significantly edited since posting.
A TPM reader in Northern Virginia reports getting three different calls directing her to the same incorrect polling location, with the callers claiming to be volunteers from the Obama campaign.
Rebecca Kingery of Arlington, Virginia, a heavily Democratic area, told TPMmuckraker that all three calls directed her to a housing complex in Arlington which is not close to where she votes.
Kingery, a graphic designer who was recently laid off, answered two of the calls. The caller ID for one said "Master Replica," and listed a 925 area code, which is in the Bay Area. For the other, the caller ID said "Olude Novosiore" and had a 408 area code, which is in central California and San Jose.
Kingery said she wasn't confused about her voting location. She added that when she responded to one of the callers that she was being given incorrect information, the caller insisted that the information was correct.
Calls by TPMuckraker to the numbers that Kingery provided were not immediately returned.
After speaking to TPMmuckraker, Kingery went to cast her ballot -- at the correct location.
Late Update: TPMmuckraker has heard back from people at both of the numbers that Kingery reported seeing on her caller I.D. Both people said they were volunteers for the Obama campaign -- one in Oakland, and another in Walnut Creek, Calif. -- and that they were calling as part of a phone-bank to give legitimate voting information. One woman, Dina Bohacek, said that she gave Kingery a phone number at which she could verify her polling location.
So this appears not to have been an effort to mislead voters about their polling place.
Josh
Zachary
Without commenting on the substance of this particular incident, I voted early in North Carolina a week and a half ago. Having recently moved, I used the Obama website to determine the nearest early voting polling place. However, the address that I was sent to from the website did not actually exist. After asking my neighbors, I did find the place, but it was nowhere near where the Obama site sent me to. This could, in fact, have been some kind of honest mistake. Obviously, I have no idea. But after reading this post, it made me immediately think of my own experience with voting.
November 4, 2008 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
This afternoon at about 2PM I received a call at my home in Arlington County, VA that told me that my voting location was in a location across the county from the my real polling place. The message claimed to be from the Obama campaign, but the contact number they left (877-5BAOBAMA) rerouted to an out-of-service number in Staten Island, NY. When I checked my incoming call record, the number indicated was a third number: 510-579-6962. When I called that number, I received no answer.
I checked the database on the Obama web site and they list my correct polling location.
Seems like a last ditch effort to suppress the vote in a very democratic region of Virginia. Fortunately, I voted two weeks ago
November 4, 2008 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink