Phoenix TV reporter Brahm Resnik reported last night that Democratic voters were getting robocalls from the Flake campaign that were giving them wrong information about their polling locations.
Talking Points Memo follows up today with a report that Democratic Party officials want an FBI investigation into the calls:
Democratic officials in Arizona asked federal and state authorities late Sunday to investigate robocalls from Republican Jeff Flake’s Senate campaign that told registered Democrats to vote at the wrong polling locations.
Brahm Resnik of Phoenix television station KPNX first reported on the calls on Sunday, interviewing a Democrat named Mary Crecco and at least six other Democratic voters who received them. Crecco said she believed she was purposefully told to go to the wrong polling location miles away from the correct one because she is a Democrat.
Flake released a statement today denying that the robocalls were meant to mislead Democratic voters:
Given the news that Democratic-leaning polling firm PPP released a survey Sunday that had the Democratic candidate down by five points, we expected the Carmona campaign to start grasping at straws. That began late Sunday night when KPNX aired a story on voter information calls sent out by my campaign.
On Saturday we sent a targeted autodial call to over 120,000 Republicans, encouraging them to vote and informing them of their polling location. The call clearly stated that it was from my campaign because it was intended for Republicans. We received fewer than a dozen calls from voters with questions about the information provided, nearly all of which we were able to reconcile. Some adult children were registered under their parents’ address. In other cases, voters had moved but not updated their registration.
Had KPNX provided us with detailed information on their report prior to airing it, we could have informed them that the Democrat they interviewed received thecall because, according the voting records, she had the same phone number as a Republican who lives in the precinct we provided information for. Again, this autodial was targeted to Republicans. Any Democrats who received the call (which in all likelihood was a small number) did so because of errant information in the database owing to circumstances like those detailed above.
This article appears in Nov 1-7, 2012.
The AZ Central beats up on Carmona through the entire election, and now Flake acts like his campaign can tell AZ Central what to do. What a crock from Jeff Flake. He won’t take responsibility for anything, always someone else’s fault. Sad man.
Didn’t vote for Flake! This misleading statement just proves I made a wise decision!
What a f’in liar. Time to send him back to SnowFlake or which ever Mormon town he’s from.
This tactic only works if you are not vigilant. Common sense will tell you that a change in your polling place won’t be given over the phone. Pay attention to your guts…polling places don’t change this close to an elect ion without a general announcement. This is an OLD trick to bamboozle the gullible.
The difference between Carmona & Flake is vast. Flake will vote in lockstep with other divisive Reps. because they’re all beholden to Grover Norquist’s pledge they sign not to raise taxes on the wealthiest, which will never lower our national debt. They are a selfish, greedy, misogynistic group, funded enormously by ALEC and Karl Rove, who want to take money from the pockets of those who “have not” and let the wealth flow upward. Carmona will listen to the people of the state of AZ, and make wise choices to benefit the majority of the people. Flake is in the same party that gives us woman-hating Akin, Ryan, McConnell…..
The fact is that if anyone trusts Mr. Flake’s campaigners to tell the truth, it’s their own fault. Believing the horses#%t that these people tell you would get you what you deserve.