Nice the Dems started stirring things up on election night with a telemarketing company.
On Election Night, Democrats Called Florida Voters About Ballot Problem
November 10, 2000
By JOHN SOLOMON
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Faced with a cliff-hanger election, the Democratic Party directed a telemarketing firm on Election Night to begin calling thousands of voters in Palm Beach, Fla., to raise questions about a disputed ballot and urge them to contact local election officials.
The Democratic National Committee paid Texas-based TeleQuest to make the calls Tuesday night - while polls were still open - alerting voters in the heavily Democratic enclave in Florida of possible confusion with the ballots they cast.
"Some voters have encountered a problem today with punch card ballots in Palm Beach County," the script for the call said. "These voters have said that they believe that they accidentally punched the wrong hole for the incorrect candidate."
"If you have already voted and think you may have punched the wrong hole for the incorrect candidate, you should return to the polls and request that the election officials write down your name so that this problem can be fixed," the script said.
The firm took the names and numbers of voters who said they may have cast an errant ballot, providing the Democratic Party a list of about 2,400 voters in the county who thought they may have misvoted.
If voters were about to go to the polls, the script called for the caller to instruct them to "be sure to punch Number 5 for Gore-Lieberman" and "do NOT punch any other number as you might end up voting for someone else by mistake."
Democratic National Committee spokeswoman Jenny Backus said the party had been making traditional get-out-the-vote calls all over the country Tuesday, but shifted gears in Palm Beach after hearing local news reports about possible voter confusion. |
