Still more complaints rolling in — including from Republicans — about the mail campaign of the Koch-brothers-funed Americans for Prosperity to scare people into voting.
A west Arkansas couple got a fourth mailer from AFP yesterday. It said, in part, that AFP is
“tracking voter turnout in neighborhood this year to determine which voters in neighborhood have voted …. We hope to let voters know after the election who participated and who failed to vote in neighborhood.”
Voter records are public records. This is legal. But it is striking many who receive the cards as Big Brotherish.
Republican Arkansas Election Commissioner Stu Soffer of White Hall, who’s been among those unhappy about the AFP mailers, notes that his latest had a slightly softer tone. It’s shown above. But he comments:
Several people who read your posts on this issue have either called, emailed, or shook my hand and thanked me for taking a stand. One was yellow-dog in Boone or Carroll County, and another was a Republican campaign manager. It appears AFP has offended both sides of the political spectrum who are not over the edge on either the right or left.
It’s the turnout game. AFP undoubtedly targets recipients based on some statistical model. (My house has received none of these cards.) AFP works a section of the political spectrum where fear has long been a popular tool.