N.C. NAACP files vote-suppression complaint against WVWV

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

WVWV (Women's Voices Women's Vote) robocalls appear to be designed to depress North Carolina's black vote and to aid Hillary in the North Carolina primary.

The North Carolina NAACP has filed a formal complaint of possible voter suppression against Women's Voices Women Vote, the D.C. nonprofit that as we revealed earlier this week was behind the deceptive and illegal robo-calls made to state residents. The N.C. NAACP hand-delivered its complaint today to state Attorney General Roy Cooper and State Board of Elections Executive Director Gary Bartlett. It's also alerted the U.S. Department of Justice that it's collecting more information from its national network and is contemplating filing a formal complaint with that agency.

N.C. NAACP President Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II (center in photo) announced the filing of the complaint at a press conference held this afternoon outside the N.C. Department of Justice. He was joined by his group's attorney, Al McSurely (left), and Bob Hall (right) of Democracy North Carolina. The state Attorney General's office is already investigating Women's Voices, but the N.C. NAACP and Democracy North Carolina want to be parties to that investigation.

"When you mess with the right to vote, you're messing with everything that is fundamental in our democracy," Barber said.

Here is the full text of the group's complaint, dated May 2. When it refers to "Ex. 1," that is the WVWV letter to Gary Bartlett available here ; "Ex. 2" directs readers to news reports at DailyKos, Facing South and NPR. "HKonJ" refers to Historic Thousands on Jones Street, a statewide coalition of some 70 social justice groups organized by the N.C. NAACP; Jones Street is where the state legislature is located in Raleigh.

http://southernstudies.org/facingsouth/2008/05/nc-naacp-files-formal-vote-suppression.asp

[DerekJ]

1. K & R

[Spazito]

2. This is getting interesting....

From the letter sent to the AG by the NC NAACP:

snip

1. The WVWV told Mr. Bartlett in its 28 April 2008 letter that it was about to mail voter registration information to 276,118 unmarried women in North Carolina and that it was sending similar mailings to "unmarried women not just in North Carolina, but around the country." (See Ex. 1) A comprehensive examination of the mailing list must be done to determine how many of these letters wnet to "unmarried women" as opposed to African Americans and other people of color, how many of each group were registered or not registered, and which misleading message each group received.

2. Although in this same letter the WVWV said it was only targeting unmarried women, three days later, on 1 May 2008, after Democracy North Carolina had raised the issue of possible targeting of African Americans, the WVWV denied it only targeted unmarried women. In a written answer it said: "While our focus is on unmarried women, we have worked to target other under-represented groups through our project, the Voter Participation Center." (Ex. 2) To what extent does the WVWV discriminate in how it communicates to African Americans in contrast to unmarried women? We cite as one example the contrast in the automated telephone messages sent to black versus white households in late April.


Hmmmm, the change, in three days, three VERY key days, the WVWV goes from focusing strictly on "unmarried women in NC" to "the WVWV denied it only targeted unmarried women. In a written answer it said: "While our focus is on unmarried women". The only thing that had changed in that three day time frame was the outing of their organization as the one misleading the voters, many of them being African American.

[Cheney Killed Bambi]

3. There are a lot of questions

that WVWV needs to answer.

[Spazito]

8. Yes, there certainly are a lot of questions about this....

For example:

Why did they change their stated goal of reaching "unmarried women" and adding others ONLY after they were identified as the group doing the robo-calls to primarily to African American communities rather than "unmarried women"?

Why did they not change their format after promising to do so in FEBRUARY after they were found to be misleading the voters then?

How often can one excuse this as an "innocent mistake"? Once, maybe.

There are many other questions as well, I hope the NAACP and the NC AG's office can get answers for them.

[NotThisTime]

4. very interesting, wondering if it will be covered in the press

[blm]

7. So far, The HRC supporting group is using the Claudine Longet defense - the gun accidently went off.

.

[H2O Man]

5. Interesting.

Thanks for posting this.

Nominated.

[blogslut]

6. kick

For shining a spotlight on voter disenfranchisement.

[Zachstar]

9. This is going to be very interesting...