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Send this YouTube to your friends and tell then to keep their eyes peeled for dirty tricksters when they go shopping this weekend. If you encounter a petitioner trying to trick you with a line about "children with cancer," then click here to report when and where you saw the dirty tricksters:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/sneaky
Last week, University of California student Steven Attewell discovered a team of petitioners on the university campus at Santa Barbara. After discovering that the petitioners were trying to get signatures for the Dirty Trick Act, Mr. Attewell immediately contacted the Courage Campaign to help shine a spotlight on these illegal tactics. The following day, we found the petitioners using their deceptive tactics to get signatures from unsuspecting college students. And we had a video camera.
As you can see in the video, the petitioners said that their petition would "help children with cancer," and then proceeded to instruct well-meaning students to sign several petitions that were attached together on a single clipboard. The petitioners clearly tried to obscure the language on the petitions, using a rubber band to make it difficult for anyone signing to read beyond the first page. When pressed, the petitioners described some of the other issues (besides curing cancer) they were advocating, but their descriptions of the petition language on eminent domain and presidential election reform was unclear or inaccurate.
According to an investigation from the UCSB Daily Nexus, the petitioners in Santa Barbara said that they work for Arno Political Consultants (APC), a notorious Republican consulting firm which has previously contracted to get signatures for tobacco companies, Mobil Oil, and they've been discovered tricking people into registering to vote as a Republican. APC has been in courts all over America, as you can see here.
APC said that their corporation bears no responsibility for the tactics seen in Santa Barbara, and that any violations of election law are the fault of the individual signature-gatherers in Santa Barbara. This seems unlikely as reports are flowing in from across the state of APC petitioners using similar deceptive tactics used to get signatures on the Dirty Trick Initiative.
If you see anyone collecting signatures for the Dirty Trick, let us know right away by visiting CourageCampaign.org/sneaky. Send us your video, your photos and your stories; we'll post them and we'll offer them up when it comes time to challenge the process.
Follow me after the break for more information.
We've caught the dirty tricksters on video.
As you know, California Counts -- a cabal of right-wing political operatives linked to Rudy Giuliani -- are working hard to steal the White House (again) in 2008. They want to fool California voters into changing the rules so Giuliani -- or some other regressive Republican presidential nominee -- can rob at least 20 Electoral College votes from California next November.
When Steven Attewell, an eagle-eyed member of the blog Daily Kos, alerted me that California Counts petition-gatherers at UC Santa Barbara were gathering signatures to help "children with cancer," I headed out to investigate.
And, sure enough, when I looked carefully at what they wanted me to sign, I noticed that "children with cancer" was just a sneaky tactic to get people to sign the so-called "Electoral College Reform Initiative" -- what we call the dirty trick initiative.
Now, Secretary of State Debra Bowen is considering whether to open an investigation -- if enough of us come forward with stories like what I saw at UCSB.
Click here to watch my YouTube video of the sneaky petitioners trying to trick college students. If you've seen a signature gatherer using sneaky tactics to obtain signatures for the Dirty Trick Initiative, please let us know and we will pass on the information to Secretary Bowen:
http://www.couragecampaign.org/sneaky
It's against the law to obscure or misrepresent petitions. Saying "I'm helping children with cancer" to get people to sign a petition about changing the Electoral College is just plain wrong - and it might be illegal.As Secretary Bowen's office told the Daily Nexus, the UCSB newspaper, they will open an investigation into the "California Counts" campaign if enough people come forward with information about wrongdoing:
"Secretary Bowen takes allegations of elections fraud seriously," [Bowen Press Secretary Kate] Folmar wrote. "She encourages anyone who has witnessed a violation of the California Elections Code to contact the Secretary of State's Fraud Investigations Unit. Potential violations brought to the fraud unit's attention are thoroughly investigated and referred for prosecution when there is sufficient evidence of wrongdoing."The Courage Campaign is in touch with the Secretary of State's Fraud Investigations Unit and will be passing on my video to aid in any potential investigation.
Let's put these California Counts signature gatherers on notice and collect evidence for the Secretary of State to launch a formal investigation.
Thanks for taking the time to help us kill this dirty trick. Again.
Erik Love
Courage Campaign
P.S.: Keep up to date with all of the latest information about the dirty tricks initiative at:
http://www.nodirtytricks.com/