Help! Did someone try to engage in voter fraud against me?

Not sure what to do, so I ask you DU....

I'm going to have to vote absentee and just sent off my request to my local county's board of elections here in NC this week. However, my mom nonchalantly let me know that she received a phone call from someone identifying themselves as some Republican group here in NC that said they were going to be sending me an absentee ballot. I've never heard of anything like this before, a partisan group sending absentee ballots out. The call was blocked on the Caller ID.

What's going on here? Some weird way for me to cast an invalid vote? An attempt at identity theft if they want me to mail it someplace else other than the board of elections? HELP!

...an application for an absentee ballot.

Don't use one from the McCain campaign. They often have wrong addresses or extra boxes.

But apparently they are made up to look exactly like absentee ballots, with the presumption that people will send it in thinking that they already voted. Also, these seem to be going only to registered Democrats.

It has been mentioned here over the last few weeks, and it stinks to high Heaven of election fraud.

I'll be honest with you, I tend to not even pay much attention to those threads because I've always been convinced that the election/voter fraud stuff was kind of overblown. I feel incredibly stupid now to say the least.

Anyway, so if I've already sent out MY legitimate official request to the BoE, I'm ok right? Just discard this when I get mailed to me? Hold on to it for some sort of complaint with the state board if it looks suspicious?

And a formal, written complaint made to the NC Secretary of State (or whoever oversees elections at the state level) wouldn't be a bad thing.

call the local county board and complain about what happened.

That way you will know your vote will be counted.

http://www.miller-mccune.com/article/705

Misleading Mailers Descend on Swing States

Short on detail or just plain wrong, mailings with GOP return addresses are sowing confusion on voting status with fewer than two months before the big day.

By: David Rosenfeld | September 17, 2008 | 05:29 PM (PDT) | Comments


One of the recent mailers.


Mass-mailers sent to more than 1 million voters in at least eight likely swing states are sowing confusion — and in some cases could disenfranchise voters — across the political spectrum.

Republican mailers sent out in the past two weeks contained either applications for absentee ballots or requests for updated voter registration records. In most cases, the mailers contained missing or confusing information, which could cause voters to believe they would receive an absentee ballot in the mail or be properly registered when they in fact would not.
Pennsylvania voters received absentee ballot requests from the John McCain campaign suggesting that voters cast ballots early by mail.

"It's as easy as 1-2-3," the letter states. But Pennsylvania election officials are cautioning voters that it's not that easy to cast an absentee ballot in the state, where voters need a valid reason for doing so, which the Republican mailers do not explain.

In several states, such as Wisconsin, Missouri and North Carolina, election officials have signaled that mistakes on absentee ballot request forms printed by the McCain campaign were minor enough that the application would be accepted anyway.

In Missouri, for example, the McCain campaign sent voters from both major parties absentee ballot applications. Missouri requires a valid reason for requesting an absentee ballot, which the mailer includes, so election integrity watchers see the Missouri applications as "legitimate."

The McCain campaign sent Wisconsin voters — including many Democrats and independents — an absentee ballot request form that would lead voters to return the forms to the wrong election division, though within the state.


more...

This is in a few states.