Ted Cruz Sent “Voter Shaming Letter” To Iowa Professor of Political Science…

The Conservative Treehouse ^ | 1.31.2015 | Sundance

[Aria]

(Via New Yorker) […] In Iowa, although voter registration information is free and available to the public, voter history is not. That information is maintained by the secretary of state, which licenses it to campaigns, super PACs, polling firms, and any other entity that might want it. So was the Cruz campaign accurately portraying the voter histories of Iowans? Or did it simply make up the numbers?

It seems to have made them up. Dave Peterson, who happens to be a political scientist at Iowa State University and is well-acquainted with the research on “social pressure” turnout techniques, received a mailer last week. The Cruz campaign pegged his voting percentage at fifty-five per cent, which seems to be the most common score that the campaign gives out. (All of the neighbors listed on Peterson’s mailer also received a score of fifty-five per cent.)

[Aria]

Seems the numbers on the Violation warning were made up.

What a disaster!

[RIghtwardHo]

Utter disaster.

Someone needs to explain to Cruz that just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.

[Theo]

Look out. Your concern troll is showing.

[moovova]

Votergate?

Shamegate?

Cruzgate?

[be-baw]

TOASTED

[Ransomed]

I wonder if it was just an age thing, like did they only send them to old people and figured if old people who normally didn’t vote actually voted they would vote for Cruz or what? How did they think upping turnout generally would help Cruz and not Trump like everyone says?

Freegards

[stocksthatgoup]

Nobody wants to see their candidate do something stupid

[Aria]

gee..you could say that about everyone here.

[Catsrus]

BusTED~

[Aria]

If you read the article you will see they sent them to people who were too young to fit Cruz’s profile of previous voting.

[Windcatcher]

Just watched an interview on FNC where the GOP rep pointed to it being done before as justification. Someone needs to tell him that one can’t justify bad behavior by pointing to other bad behavior.

Let’s get real. The mailer, right down to the red ink and yellow “recipient copy” paper, was intended to look like a traffic ticket. It was meant to intimidate people by implying that they have *done something wrong*.

I like Ted Cruz and I like his message, but let’s face it. The mailer was deceitful and, when you get to it, slimy. If I received something like that in the mail I would feel insulted that someone thought they could manipulate me in such a manner. I don’t like having my intelligence insulted, which is why 99% of any GOP mailers I get go straight to the trash.

I’d rather have my hair set on fire and have it put out with a sledgehammer than vote for any Democrat, but that doesn’t mean that I’m okay with the GOP insulting my intelligence.

[VerySadAmerican]

If this is the kind of people Cruz would hire it raises the creepiness level up a few notches.

[CodeToad]

Ethical? No. Illegal? Probably.

Ted Cruz, by sending these "Voting Violation" mailers, in my opinion, violated the following federal election laws. Many States have similar laws.

The following is an image of a mailer Senator Ted Cruz sent out intimidating and threatening voters. It contains voter information and the information of the voter's neighbors.

It threatens "follow up notices" with no doubt information about if the voter voted in the caucus.

It attempts to intimidate voters by threatening public disclosure to neighbors of a person's voting record.

One must ask what does Senator Ted Cruz expect the person receiving this notice should do to their neighbors for not voting as Senator Ted Cruz demands, and what might happen to the voter if the neighbors are informed they have not voted as Senator Ted Cruz expects?

These are direct threats and intimidations in violation of federal election, civil rights, and postal laws.

The following PDF document link outlines the federal election laws and the government's position on such matters for the purposes of prosecution.

Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses Seventh Edition, May 2007

The following sections are from the above document. I've condensed and paraphrased the document to the important words.

42 U.S. Code § 1973gg-10 - Criminal penalties (violation of election law)
A person in any election for Federal office knowingly and willfully intimidates, threatens, or coerces, or attempts to intimidate, threaten, or coerce, any person for registering to vote, or voting, or attempting to register or vote; urging or aiding any person to register to vote, to vote, or to attempt to register or vote; shall be fined or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both.

18 U.S. Code § 594 - Intimidation of voters
Whoever intimidates, threatens, coerces, or attempts to intimidate, threaten, or coerce, any other person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose, or of causing such other person to vote for, or not to vote for, any candidate for the office of President or Vice President shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both.

[erlayman]

In the article professor indicates they were all ages — the younger ones would have been ineligible to vote in all the elections they are ‘violated’ for. I wonder if this could open up libel suits from the slandered parties having false information published about them.

[TontoKowalski]

The fun continues. Joe Scarborough has retweeted a story that Rubio did this, too. There are pictures.

His didn't include the bit of grading them or ratting the neighbors out, But it was somewhat similar.

I think that explains Rubio's tepid response yesterday when asked about Cruz's campaign doing this. LOL

[Wissa]

What’s with the video of Ted and his daughter on that page? Is she trying to flick a booger at him?

[Georgia Girl 2]

The thing about Cruz is that all of his wounds are self inflicted. The wall street loans as well as this latest fiasco. It speaks to judgment and character.

[Aria]

Something wrong with Cruz’s gut instinct...if he thinks we can be so manipulated.

[grania]

Nobody wants to see their candidate do something stupid

It's not just the stupid part. It was arrogant to think it wouldn't offend people. And now made up numbers? Is that slander?

[jennychase]

They can’t find grandmother to take care of kids, why they are dragging them?