Presidential campaigns, voters upset about misleading calls

[BeatleBoot]

Presidential campaigns, voters upset about misleading calls

http://www.freep.com/news/latestnews/pm1049_20041101.htm

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Some voters on Monday complained of getting misleading automated phone calls over the weekend telling them either that their polling place had changed or that a vote for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was a vote to legalize gay marriage.

The messages - known as robo calls - were placed in heavily Democratic cities of Detroit, Flint and Pontiac and the Democratic-leaning city of Grand Rapids.

“When you vote this Tuesday, remember to legalize gay marriage by supporting John Kerry,” the call said. “It’s what we all want. It’s a basic Democratic principle.”

Kerry opposes same sex marriage. Earlier this year, Kerry spoke against a proposal to amend the federal constitutional to ban same sex marriage, saying the issue was divisive and should be left up to states. He supports civil unions for gay or lesbian couples.

The phone calls were made in communities with large populations of African Americans, many of whom vote Democratic, but who also have supported the passage of Michigan’s ballot Proposal 2, a ban on same sex marriage.

“It’s obvious that they’re using this as a wedge issue to suppress the vote in Detroit,” said Josh Elling, 28, a Kerry supporter from Detroit, who received the call Sunday evening. “I think it’s shameful.”

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