I would be livid if I got a mailing like that. I understand that its public information. If I wanted to, I could find out if my neighbor’s voted, but it just seems like such an invasion of privacy for an entity to send that info out without anyone requesting it.
As to the books, they are going away in my state. There is a new gizmo that allows a poll worker to swipe a voter’s driver’s license and be able to tell if they are registered to vote and if they are at the right poll. The voter signs the screen before getting the ballot.
As a Records Manager, this distresses me. Those records are supposed to be kept forever, but technology changes so fast and data is always lost during the migrations.
I’m not getting the outrage here. This isn’t information about HOW you voted, just whether or not you voted at all. Big whoop … why would that information bother anyone? If we’re going to be all, “OMG, voter fraud, show your ID, prove you are a legal voter, SAVE DEMOCRACY!” then this is just the reasonable next step, right?
Now, as for your name being on a flyer available to the neighborhood crack dealer or whatever, I kind of understand … but if the name’s not matched with an address, I still don’t quite get the anger.
So wait. There’s a list I can check against for when people complain about their political leaders?
“BLAH BLAH BLAH OBLAMER BLAH BLAH BLAH”
Well hey, I see you didn’t bother to vote in 2008, so SHUT THE FUCK UP. You had your chance then and you couldn’t be bothered to participate, so as far as I’m concerned you got fuck all to say now…
In Wisconsin, at least, anyone can request a voter list, and the list has a check mark next to each election each party participated in for the last 10 elections. Those lists are used to find people who don’t vote regularly and could be strongarmed to come to the polls.
I think, but I’m not sure, that the voter’s party affiliation, if any, is also public record. You can see how this could be quite useful for party workers looking for a specific vote.
if the state has an open primary then you never have to disclose your party affiliation at the polls. states with a closed primary you would have your party affiliation recorded.
This could just be my partisanship and general paranoia talking, but I sort of wonder if this might actually be a smear attempt trying to make it look like a Democratic-affiliated organization is doing something obnoxious.
It could be real – left-leaning groups are way more likely to try to push non-voters and occasional voters to the polls than right-leaning groups. But it’s hard for me to imagine how anyone working in politics could possibly think this would do anything besides make the group sending it out look bad.
Yup, that’s how a county GOP group in Illinois found out my husband and I chose Democratic ballots in a primary, as noted above (and as johnpost noted, we have open primaries).
I kind of wondered about that, but the people behind the Greater Wisconsin Committee referenced in Boyo Jim’s post are mostly trial lawyers, and hence there’s a good chance they are actual Democrats/left-leaners.
There are media stories all over the state about these mailings (apparently there were two slightly different ones, but I only got one), and the Greater Wisconsin Political Fund is named as the source in virtually all of them. They are not denying it, or even commenting on it AFAICT. If it was some other group faking their name, they would be all over the media denying it, and charges and counter-charges would be flying. This is not happening.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that there’s a veiled threat/promise/reminder that everyone will also know who voted (or didn’t) in Tuesday’s election as well.
And? Then what happens? Considering the woeful state of voter participation in this country, I don’t think the fact that you didn’t vote in a certain election is going to really expose you to ridicule by your neighbors.
If it really bothers you, go to the polls, sign the registration sheet, and then don’t fill out the ballot, or file a blank one, or write in Newt Gingrich or Dennis Kucinich for every race. Next time, you’ll have the check by your name that says you voted. Done and done.
Meh. I’m a Madisonian, very involved in the recall. And getting numb to all the slimy politics going on (there’s a rumor that The Gov’ll be indicted in an investigation soon after the election).
The voter mailing gave me pause, but my Outrage Circuits have been overloaded for a year now.
Right. I don’t think there’s any doubt that this “Greater Wisconsin Political Fund” is the author of these campaigns. But that doesn’t mean they are a legitimate left-wing group. They may be sponsored by GOP donors in order to make the anti-Scott Brown campaign look bad.
I mean, as a comparison, this year I got robo-calls urging me to vote for Santorum in our state’s primary, sponsored by a group that implied they were siding with Obama and trying to get me to vote in the GOP primary in order to nominate an unelectable candidate. I looked them up, and they are a weird fringey far-right group that actually was trying to get Santorum into the White House. It appears to be the case that there are occasionally dishonest tactics used in American politics.