TPMMuckraker
Voting: November 2009

Shadowy GOP-Linked Group Plans Barrage Of 2010 Robo-Calls

Zachary Roth | November 23, 2009, 1:10PM

A shadowy conservative group with ties to the operatives behind a host of GOP dirty tricks is working to undermine state restrictions on political robo-calls, as it gears up to unleash a barrage of such calls in 2010 races.

Last month, American Future Fund Political Action (AFFPA) informed the FEC that it's planning robo-calls in congressional races. Jason Torchinsky, a lawyer for AFFPA, wrote that the group "wishes to distribute pre-recorded telephone calls ... as part of a nationwide program of political outreach." The calls, wrote Torchinsky, "will expressly advocate the election or defeat of one or more clearly identified candidates for Federal office."

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Topics: Alex Vogel, American Center for Voting Rights, American Future Fund, Jason Torchinsky, Jill Holtzman Vogel, Jill Hotlzman, Voting, voter fraud

ACORN

ACORN: We're Not Even Working In New Jersey

Zachary Roth | November 3, 2009, 6:09PM

John Fund

OK, here's what should be the nail in the coffin for conservative claims that ACORN is poised to steal the New Jersey governor's race through rampant voter fraud.

Brian Kettenring, an ACORN spokesman, tells TPMmuckraker that the much-maligned group has conducted absolutely no political or voter registration activity in the state during the 2009 cycle. And Kettenring added that ACORN had done very little such work during the 2008 cycle.

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Topics: ACORN, John Fund, Patrick Ruffini, Voting, voter fraud

Voting

Expert: Provisional Ballots Less Vulnerable To Voter Fraud, Not More

Zachary Roth | November 3, 2009, 3:19PM

John Fund

In our post from earlier today about the conservative efforts to gin up bogus voter fraud fears, one point we didn't go into -- but Adam Serwer at the American Prospect now has -- is the silliness of the notion that provisional ballots are particularly vulnerable to voter fraud.

A central component of the current right-wing freakout is the fact that there are likely to be a higher number of provisional ballots cast in New Jersey this year. That, so the thinking goes, makes fraud more likely.

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Topics: Voting, voter fraud

voter fraud

What's New? Lacking Evidence, Conservatives Again Stoke Voter Fraud Fears

Zachary Roth | November 3, 2009, 11:12AM

John Fund

Another election, another boatload of evidence-free Republican claims of voter fraud...

In part because it's the closest of the major races, the New Jersey governor's race has been the focus of the GOP's dire warnings. Here's how the campaign to stoke fears over voter fraud in the Garden State has ramped up in recent days: