State officials: Ignore neighborhood voting 'audits'

[silvershadow]

I just posted about this letter the other day. I have had some friends really upset after receiving one of these letters.

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The Indiana secretary of state's office is urging Hoosier voters to disregard mailed letters that purport to show the voting participation records for recipients and their neighbors.

The letters come from a group called Americans for Limited Government and say they are providing neighborhood voting record "audits" showing participation -- or lack thereof -- in the 2008, 2010 and 2012 elections, according to Secretary of State Connie Lawson. Often, the field for 2012 is marked "pending."

Some voters who have complained about the mail pieces say the listed records are incorrect.

A news release from Lawson's office points out that Indiana law limits access to voter participation records. However, while the state provides such records only to state political parties and legislative caucuses, voters' records also can be obtained from county voter registration offices.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20121030/NEWS0502/121030059/State-officials-Ignore-neighborhood-voting-audits-?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|IndyStar.com|s

[MrYikes]

1. I would love to know the names of the people doing this.

[Kolesar]

2. It's a gimmick to increase voter participation

They discussed this on NPR's On The Media http://www.onthemedia.org/

At least one academic study has shown the tactic to be effective. Researchers from Yale University and the University of Northern Iowa performed an experiment in Michigan in the 2000s that showed that the most effective way to boost turnout through a mailed reminder was to include the voting participation histories of the recipient and his or her neighbors. That was four times as effective as sending a simple reminder that voting is a duty.