Thursday, Halloween, was the day for chills and ghost stories, but sometimes things that come in the mail are even more creepy.
Wednesday, my spouse and I received a "Voting Report Card" from an outfit called the Center for Voting Information. It read, in part:
"Dear AM:
Public records indicate that you are eligible to vote in the coming election....Remember, who you vote for is private, but whether or not you voted is public record."
It then gave me a chart, contrasting my voting record (i.e. if I had voted in that year's general election), with two of my neighbors, with their addresses and names redacted, for the years 2016, 2018, 2020 and 2022.
And then for the chills.
It continued "We will be reviewing these records after the election to determine whether or not you joined your neighbors in voting." (italics are mine).
And then what? Is this a veiled threat, given the political climate we in the United States are in? Aren't many of us exhausted or fearful already?
Who are these Center for Voter Information people, anyway? I invite you to research that online if you are interested. I did.
I went online. I'm not the only person who has received mailings from this Center for Voting Information and I'm not alone in feeling this particular mailing was creepy or even vaguely threatening.
So. It is true that voter registration records are public, at least in New York State. I can easily determine if I am on the registration rolls and find out my polling place. If I voted by absentee ballot, I can find out its status. And, I can see if I am registered as a Republican or a Democrat.
My actual vote is private. Our democracy depends on that privacy. I have the right to vote along party lines, or I can cross that line and vote for the other side. Voting is a civic duty, and I am well aware that, as a woman, many fought for my right to vote. In fact, at the time my mother was born, she had no right to vote. I am well aware of that, too. I don't need a mailing to tell me that.
Oh, and about that list of neighbors and if they voted. I have the grand total of, I believe, one neighbor on my block who was living there in 2016. For that matter, on my block, there is only one family besides us who was living here in 2022. One neighbor died earlier this year. Most other houses are rentals and there is a constant turnover of tenants.
Do I even care if my neighbors voted? (For the record, my spouse and I early voted in this year's election, and, once again, it's no one's business how we voted.)
So, about that "we will be reviewing these records....": For what purpose? Learning how to better influence my vote? Retribution? Who are you to review my voting records.
That really does creep me out.
Center for Voting Information, just stop it.
But, despite all this confusion....
Vote as if your freedom depends on it, my fellow Americans.
Because, one day, it might.
And that's what is truly creepy.
It sounds quite unpleasant. I found this from The Washington Post:
ReplyDelete'Maryland’s attorney general describes them as a violation of state law and ordered the two nonprofit groups behind the letters to stop sending them.'
Do most states have the same opinion?
You are not alone in being creeped out. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/voter-report-card-mailings-described-as-creepy-and-insulting-defended-as-effective-tool/
ReplyDeleteI was a committee person for my local political party. We were given lists of registered voters. The list included name, address and party affiliation, if any, we knocked on doors, sent postcards and made phone calls to get out the vote. But we were careful to not cross a line that the Center clearly crossed.
Songbird, thank you so much for the link. I read most of it to my spouse. The letter shown is exactly what I got. I am so disappointed that the person whose name this was sent under still doesn't think they overstepped. "Recycle and go out and vote" well that's exactly what I did. I would have voted anyway. I don't mind the canvassing you have done; that's all part of democracy.
DeleteThere’s a big difference between a postcard that says “please go out and vote for candidate X” and what this organization did,
DeleteExcellent post. I have never felt so threatened by my government, and this is a downright threat. Who came up with this?
ReplyDelete...this hasn't hit our mailbox!
ReplyDeleteCan you report them to an election authority? I mean, you have standing. You felt threatened. That has to be illegal, or at least they should be shamed.
ReplyDeleteI voted weeks ago. At one of the "make sure you haven't been purges from the voter rolls" posts somewhere, I checked my status. And it turned out I could check the status of my previous votes. It was cool to see that they had records of when my ballots were returned and that they had been accepted and counted. There's something empowering about that.
Very creepy but not surprising there are some committees that would stoop to these sorts of tactics. Nothing like this has been sent to us.
ReplyDeleteNo, I don't like the sound of that at all. Maybe IF we vote shouldn't be public record. Very few need to know.
ReplyDeleteIn neighborhoods where underprivileged people live, it's been confirmed that letters are being sent out to tell people that they voted--when they hadn't!--and that voting twice is a crime. The idea is that these people are likely to vote for handouts (D) but easily intimidated. They don't have confidence that they'll be able to sort out the confusion. So they stay home on election day rather than be accused of voting twice. This is known to be a total scam. Registrars have not been implicated at all.
ReplyDeleteIt's like the "Your polling place has been changed--you may drop your ballot in this [repainted dumpster]" scam from the last time.
(not anonymous) Pris cilla King
I keep getting text messages about making sure I vote, but do not read the entire message. I throw away most of the fliers without reading them.
ReplyDeleteBack in 2014 I was in Finland. We were sitting at a table next to a well-known Brazilian author. We heard him say that he had to cut his book tour short to go back to Brazil to vote where it is REQUIRED. Kinda scary too.