(Alabama) Democrats seek probe into election day prank

Source: Huntsville Times

Top officials in the Alabama Democratic Party are asking state and federal authorities to investigate an election day prank by a conservative radio commentator in Huntsville.

"Win, lose or draw, we're going to make sure the proper authorities see this," Joe Turnham, head of the state Democratic Party, said Tuesday afternoon. "Not only is it not a joke, but it also could be in violation of federal law. Its sole purpose and intent is to fool voters."

Republican candidate Paul Sanford won Tuesday's special election, defeating state Rep. Laura Hall, D-Huntsville, for an open seat in the state Senate. But before the polls closed, Democrats had contacted the attorney general and the secretary of state in Montgomery to complain about a phony news release saying polls would be open for two days.

The release stated that because of heavy voter turnout, Hall and Sanford had agreed to flip a coin for use of the polls. Sanford's supporters would vote Tuesday, Hall's were to vote today.

Conservative radio commentator Dale Jackson of WVNN in Huntsville read the phony release on air and posted a copy to his Web site Tuesday morning. The release made prominent use of the Alabama state seal.

Read more: http://www.al.com/news/huntsvilletimes/local.ssf?/base/news/124462531383850.xml&coll=1

You may remember the stories from 2004 and 2006 that people were being phoned and
"reminded" to vote on Wed, the day after the real election on Tues. Many people fell for that call.
The calls were placed only in heavily Democratic precincts.

Similar thing happend in Boston on Election Day. Two right-wing sports radio hosts claimed that the Democrats had to vote on Nov 5 instead of the fourth.

<http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/11/05/radio_hosts_criticized_for_election_day_falsehood/>

They called senior citizens who were registered Dems and offered them a ride to the polls on Wed.

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goes to the heart of our system. Without fair elections, we're no better than a banana rethuglic.

and a well-used, tried-and-true method from the 'dirty tricks' playbook...

i'm glad someone is bringing this to light, but ultimately the GOP are good at deniability and in the end no one ever gets in any real trouble -- maybe a small fine at the most....