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* These headlines caught my eye over the weekend…

* Huffington Post: Koch-Backed Group Ramps Up Intervention In Tight Illinois Governor’s Race

* Crooks and Liars: Koch Group Sends Fake Voter Information To Discourage Illinois Voters

* Daily Kos: Kochs now harassing voters in Illinois with registration mailers

* The alarming headlines were all based on this Decatur Herald & Review article…

It’s not uncommon for residents such as Maryilynn Baer to receive political mail before the general election.

But when recent letter came to her home that asked for her husband, Edgar, to re-register to vote before the November election, Baer was overwhelmed and upset.

Her husband had been dead since May.

“It was upsetting,” she said. “His name had already been taken off the voter registration list, and I sent the letter to (Macon County Clerk) Steve Bean and told him I had already notified him that Edgar had passed away.”

But the letter did not come from Bean. In fact, residents across the state have received similar letters that are seemingly sent from their local officials asking them to re-register to vote, with return postage listing the local county clerk’s name and address. The letters are actually being sent by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, one of the largest conservative groups in the country.

* Trouble is, the article appears to have been mistaken. I called around over the weekend and was able to get a copy from the House Democrats. Nowhere in the mailer does it ask people to “re-register” to vote. Instead, it merely asks people to register if they haven’t…

Now, perhaps there is another mailer, but the one the Democrats have seems awfully benign.

And the fact that they’re mailing to dead people appears to suggest the group has an old list, not that they’re up to something deliberately nefarious.

…Adding… From AFP Illinois…

Rich-

The mailer you have up on the blog is the only one that went out. Obviously, mailing to folks who have passed on is not what we want to do for a number of reasons. It’s not nearly as easy to identify unregistered people as it is registered, but we use a number of models and information sources to do so. Sometimes the data is imperfect but we’re trying to get as many people involved in the election process as possible.

Regards,

David From

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Oct 20, 14 @ 11:50 am

Comments

This reminds me of the recent letter sent to my husband to renew his driver’s license from the SoS. He passed away three years ago.

Comment by Wensicia Monday, Oct 20, 14 @ 12:04 pm
And the gentleman in the article has only been dead for five months. That’s no time at all for voter and mailing lists.

Comment by Ron Burgundy Monday, Oct 20, 14 @ 12:09 pm
Another case of hysterical nonsense and baseless accusations from the left, in other words, how they typically try to turn out their base.

Comment by Reader Monday, Oct 20, 14 @ 12:34 pm
A mini-”Tempest in a Tea Pot” probably brought on by a slow news day in Decatur.

Comment by Coffee Cup Monday, Oct 20, 14 @ 12:44 pm
But..but the Koch Brothers! Didn’t you hear? I said Koch Brothers!

Adding superfluous ballot initiatives, not requiring an ID to vote early, extending same day registration to include election day, all of those things are fine. A piece of mail encouraging someone to register vote that came from AFP? That is an outrage.

Get over yourselves.

Comment by Alex P. Keaton Monday, Oct 20, 14 @ 12:49 pm
Voter caging?

Comment by Deep South Monday, Oct 20, 14 @ 1:12 pm
With all of the voter fraud in the White Community time to require a DNA sample, Picture ID, and a Retina Scan to vote…along with a fee of $50,000.00. We just have to stop this. More voter fraud among Whites than there is Ebola. Its an epidemic. You cant just let Whites use a picture ID to vote. It could be fake. I searched for “White Fake ID’s” got ten million hits.

Comment by Del Clinkton Monday, Oct 20, 14 @ 1:39 pm
Having called more than my fair share of grieving relatives, I fail to understand where the outrage is.

But hey, anything to fire up the base, right?

Comment by ChrisB Monday, Oct 20, 14 @ 1:46 pm
@Del

Um, that’s not the topic of this thread, but I understand the lefty reflex of diversion. Next.

Comment by Reader Monday, Oct 20, 14 @ 3:24 pm
The voting records are behind almost everywhere I’ve ever walked. Too often, I’ve asked to speak to a deceased person or someone who moved a few years ago. They’re still on the rolls. That’s a recipe for cheating unfortunately. This isn’t a rare occurrence at all. It should be.

Comment by A guy... Monday, Oct 20, 14 @ 4:04 pm
DailyKos is really reaching on this:
“See, the mailer made it seem like it had one from County Clerk Bean. All over the state, people have been calling their county clerks to find out if they really do have to re-register, because all of the mailings from AFP are meant to look like they’re coming from elections officials. ”

Thanks for the above copy of the mailer. It shows in the first sentence, after the black “Complete this form and mail it in the attached folder today!” : “Americans for Prosperity Foundation tracks the registration rates of eligible voters.”

Proves that too many Americans are not very good readers, or don’t have much street sense.

I would love to have a $1 for every phone call or letter (meant for parents) that I received at my house for the decade following their deaths. I would easily have hundreds of $$.

Comment by BobInIllinois Monday, Oct 20, 14 @ 7:09 pm
Folks, you’re missing the point. This isn’t about a few mailings going to deceased individuals, it’s about AFP’s efforts to confuse and mislead voters going back years:

http://www.southernstudies.org/2014/10/americans-for-prosperitys-trail-of-voter-misinform.html

Comment by tbird Monday, Oct 20, 14 @ 11:18 pm