Posted on 10/24/2004 11:02:18 AM PDT by MIT-Elephant
By Michael Riley Denver Post Staff Writer
Littleton teenager Aaron Oster-Beal woke up one morning last week to find the family's Kerry-Edwards yard sign on the porch covered with a rude surprise - a pile of dog excrement.
Voters in Jefferson County have received calls from someone posing as an election official and instructing them to throw away their absentee ballots.
A Colorado Springs woman recently received a call from someone claiming to be from Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign who expressed condolences about the death of her husband in Iraq. When the woman said she knew her husband was still alive, the caller said a vote for Kerry would help keep him that way.
The Kerry campaign said the stunt was so outrageous that it could only have been staged by someone trying to discredit the Democrat.
"Some of the tactics being perpetrated by folks as we get closer to the election are just disgusting," said Steve Haro, Kerry's spokesman in Colorado.
Amid all the high-pitched rhetoric warning of voter fraud and an election train wreck, most of what's going on isn't about rigging the vote; it's about squeezing out every advantage in an election that is pushing groups and individuals to extremes.
Lawyers for the major parties are preparing fill-in-the-blank briefs that can be filed within hours after the polls close.
And last month, Democratic state Sen. Ken Gordon sent out letters to neighbors of people who haven't voted recently. Listing their names, addresses and telephone numbers, he urged they be contacted - stirring privacy concerns.
Randal Wagner was removing Kerry-Edwards signs from lawns in Lakewood when he allegedly shoved one homeowner who tried to stop him, according to a police report. He later ended up tripping over a chain- link fence and knocking himself out. He was charged with trespassing and theft.
Wagner now says he "sincerely apologizes" for his actions and hopes "moderating voices" prevail in the political debate.
Both sides concede they are playing aggressively, but only in response to the tough methods or dirty tricks of their opponents.
But they also make a key distinction between defrauding the election and "gaming the system" - looking for every angle within the limits of the law.
"There is a lot more smoke than fire," said Scott Gessler, a Republican election lawyer.
"The parties research it. They know what the rules are, and they use them to their best advantage. There's nothing wrong with that," he said.
As an example, Gessler said that in 2002, the party called up Republicans who had requested absentee ballots and instructed them to cast a provisional ballot anyway. That left the possibility that some of the double votes would be counted.
He said the party would probably do the same this year.
At best, the tactics grate against voters' sense of fairness. At worst, they create doubts about the integrity of the election process.
Susan Miller, Jefferson County elections director, said the calls telling voters to throw away their absentee ballots have gone to Republicans and Democrats alike.
"It's to confuse the voters, stir up the pot a little bit," she said.
While some tricks always accompany high-stakes elections, both sides admit that the memory of the 2000 vote lingers and that for the time being it appears to have shifted the bounds of acceptable behavior.
"What you've got now is a lot of anger over the voting systems and a real readiness to use lawyers," Gessler said.
The belief that thousands of voters were disenfranchised four years ago has also fired an intense and often emotional effort to register people and make sure their votes are counted.
But that effort has also come with major glitches. Some companies paid workers for every new registration they brought in, creating incentives to forge names and signatures.
Jasmine Montoya, who until last week worked for a Democrat-aligned voter-registration group, said trainers told her that even if people indicated they were already registered, they should encourage them to register again.
She and other canvassers for Moving America Forward said they would ask people whether they supported Pete Coors or Ken Salazar in the race for U.S. Senate. If they supported Salazar, canvassers handed them a form to request an absentee ballot. If they supported Coors, they would walk away.
Dan Sena, the group's regional director, said that Moving America Forward has strict safeguards to ensure that no deception is used in getting voters to register. He said the group has never claimed to be nonpartisan, adding that members strictly follow all Federal Election Commission rules.
Still, said Karon Hatchett, director of the Denver Election Commission, those and other controversies over voter registration groups mean that county clerks will push for tighter regulations during the next legislative session.
"State law hasn't kept up with federal law on voter registration," she said. "It just never anticipated what we're seeing now."
Lets see dog poo on a Kerry sign... Republicans did it
Calling up the wives and children of soldiers serving in combat telling them their loved ones
are dead....and then saying this is what will happen unless John Kerry is elected president?
And when called on it...say.. The Republicans are doing this to in order to 'discredit' Dems
Yeah, sure....that's the ticket....
He said, as he stamped his little foot.
I don't recall any Dims denouncing the vandalism of Bush/Cheney locations around the country.
Why shouldn't it be covered in a pile of dog excrement, after all it is their candidate.
(sarcasm on) Probably Republicans trying to frame Democrats for attempted murder. (sarcasm off)
They are also sure that it was Republicans.
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