My next-door neighbour displays signs for *both* candidates for the District Attorney. When I asked him how come (there's only one voter in his house), he said he did it for his neighbours - "doesn't matter who you vote for, *as long as* you vote. I like to remind everyone of options. Go vote, chose whom you like". But his *Presidential* sign is definitely one-sided... :) "There", he said, "you hafta vote for Bush". When I said there was no way I would, his response was: "don't go to vote. I'll kill your vote". I think I may spend the night of Nov 1/2 in my car, making sure nobody lets the air out of my tires, to prevent me from voting "wrong"... :) I have never-ever, in my 16 or so voting years, seen this country so polarised. Or been so aware that we're headed for a Soviet Union-type of "democracy" - do it my way, or else...
From: M.K.
This one is real...my cousin sent it to me, and she knows the person who wrote it (as do I). I've deleted the last name, in case it gets forwarded further.
From my friend Valerie, area children's author I believe you've met.� To make the long story short, if you receive a call asking about your absentee ballot (did you receive, etc.), play along & say yes & note the address where the caller wants you to mail the ballot & report the information to the Ann Arbor City Clerk.� For details, see below.� Thank heavens it's getting close to Voting Day so all the monkey business will end?! Happy Halloween,� <my cousin> ;-)
Note: forwarded message attached.
___________
Yesterday morning (Wed.), we got a weird phone call which caller ID identified only as "out-of-state." I picked up & answered. A woman with an African-American accent answered. She did not say "hello", but immediately said, "We're calling to find out if you received the absentee voter ballot you applied for." I started to reply, "No one at this house applied...." but before I could finish she just hung-up. No good-bye, no thank you, no nothing. I told Dad & he said I should call the Ann Arbor City Clerk's office to make sure we're still on the voter registration roll & will be able to vote. I phoned this a.m. (Thurs.) and spoke with a woman named Barb at the City Clerk's office. She thanked me profusely for calling because the Clerk's office has received several phone calls of the same nature from a number of voters. The Clerk's office suspects some kind of fraud is being attempted. They (Clerk's office) and City Prosecuter and police are currently investigating and trying to find out what is going on. She thanked me for the information from our caller I.D. which indicated possibly an out-of-state origin for the call. She stated that some other callers reported that the person who phoned them said, "We are calling to see whether you received your absentee ballot and to tell you where to send it." These callers likewise had not requested ballots for this election and so the caller hung up without divulging the address. The City Clerk's office believes this may be some kind of ruse in which the mystery caller is trying to pass themselves off as representing the Clerk's Office and trying to get people who indeed are voting by absentee ballot to mail their ballot to the wrong address (not the address given out with the ballot). Barb (from the Clerk's Office) asked me whether the caller made any attempt to represent herself as an agent of the Clerk's Office. "No, the caller hadn't," I responded. This caller was very curt and cut me off as soon as I told her that no absentee ballot had been requested. Barb said that the Clerk's Office fears that somehow someone has laid their hands on information from persons who had now or in the past requested absentee ballots (this past summer we were not sure that Jeffrey would be back from Wales in time to vote in the school election, so I picked up the form at the Ballis Bldg. for him to request an absentee ballot, but he never mailed it in because once he'd figured out his travel schedule, he realised he'd be home in time to vote in person; there have been other times in the past when we were going to be away from home so that we did vote by absentee ballot - thus, we have registered in the past for absentee ballots.) Anyway, Barb says the investigation into what is going on is now underway. She requested that, if any of us gets another phone call of this nature, that we "play along." Tell the caller "yes, I got my absentee ballot" and see what the caller says, especially write down any address she or he gives for the ballot to be mailed to and take note if the caller tries to represent themselves as from the City Clerk's Office, the state, county or whomever. Then we should report this information to the City Clerk's Office immediately. She stressed that this is very important. She took down my name and phone number and asked if it would be ok if the Clerk's Office, City Prosecuter or police contacts me in the future about this matter. "Certainly they may," I responded. She checked the roll and said that she has <family names deleted for privacy> down as registered voters at this address.
In short, if any of you get a similar call, "play along" saying that "yes" you received your absentee ballot, get any information you can from the caller and report it to the (Ann Arbor) City Clerk's Office.
--- Tamara P Duvall http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd Lexington, Virginia, USA (Formerly of Warsaw, Poland) Healthy US through The No-CARB Diet: no C-heney, no A-shcroft, no R-umsfeld, no B-ush.
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