Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Alaskan voters angered about letters revealing voting records of friends and neighbors and threatening to reveal more before the election.
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| Billionaire Paul Singer, whose Right Wing organization is behind the mailings. |
A series of letters from a shadowy group is telling Alaskans’ friends and neighbors whether they voted in previous elections -- and threatening to release their voting records in the Nov. 4 general elections.
In letters photographed by Channel 2 viewers who received them, the Alaska State Voter Program lists 10 friends and neighbors, along with their home addresses and whether -- but not how -- they voted in the 2008, 2010 and 2012 elections. At least one person reported subsequently receiving an email from the group containing the text of the mailed letter.
An introduction in the letters rhetorically asks why people don’t vote, then poses the group’s solution to the issue. The language is mirrored on the group's website, which allows people to generate a list similar to those in the letters by entering their name and mailing address or their Facebook account.
“This year, we’re taking a new approach,” ASVP members wrote. “We’re sending this mailing to you, your friends, your neighbors, your colleagues at work, and your community members to publicize who does and does not vote.”
Channel 2 viewers have uniformly condemned the Alaska mailings as an unwarranted intrusion on their privacy, with one saying a friend who received a copy of the letter at his Wasilla home did not respond well.
“He and his wife are furious because the letter lists names and addresses of their neighbors and what years they voted -- which means their names are probably on a letter in other people's households,” the viewer wrote. “These types of shaming and bullying tactics are unacceptable and they cross the line.”
A second viewer pointed out the possibility of information from the letters enabling criminal activity.
“We recently had ID theft and the last thing we want to publicize is where we live,” the viewer wrote. “I wonder how many people are outraged like us.”
A third viewer said the mailings represent a threat to Alaska-based service members’ operational and personal security.
“How is this even okay to send out people’s names and addresses?” the viewer wrote. “What about the military families in this state who are trying to maintain proper OPSEC and PERSEC, who just had their names and addresses sent out to random other people?”
This Alaska State Voter Program attempts to camouflage itself as a local political outfit, even using some of our beautiful scenery on its website, but it is certainly NOT an Alaskan organization.
And by the way when they say "this year we're taking a new approach" that is bullshit as this seems to be the first year they have even been in existence. In fact they really don't seem to even exist today.
Gee I wonder where they came from, and who is paying for all of this?
Well KTUU has some of those answers:
While ASVP isn’t registered with the Alaska Public Offices Commission according to Fenumiai, she said the interstate nature of its PAC would leave it covered by the Federal Election Commission. State officials have been unable to uncover much more about the nature and origins of the group, she said.
An attribution at the bottom of the letters says they are paid for by the Opportunity Alliance PAC, a political action committee associated with the Republican-affiliated American Opportunity Alliance. The alliance’s website doesn’t list a page for Alaska, but includes links to an attack ad against U.S. Senate incumbent Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), as well as endorsements of Republicans Joni Ernst in an Iowa U.S. Senate race and Martha McSally for an Arizona U.S. House seat.
Apparently the Opportunity Alliance PAC is run by billionaire Paul Singer who it just so happens donate $600,000 to Dan Sullivan's campaign last year.
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