Mailbox letters aim to shame Michigan voters to turn out on election day

[Bozita]

Source: WDIV-TV Detroit

Mailbox letters aim to shame Michigan voters to turn out on election day
Letters inform Michigan voters if neighbors voted in past elections, aim to get voters to turn out to avoid shame
Author: Mara MacDonald, Local 4 Reporter
Published On: Nov 01 2012 10:52:31 PM EDT


DETROIT - It looks innocuous enough, but the catchy red writing on the outside raises eyebrows.

"Vote history audit enclosed," it reads. Then, you see what's on the inside.

The letter arriving in mailboxes across southeast Michigan lists names of a recipient's neighbors and whether they voted in 2004 and 2008. Then, the letter thanks the recipient for voting and informs them they will be updating their records and sending out another audit.

Who are "they?" It's a group out of Virginia which calls itself Americans for Limited Government. What the group is doing is perfectly legal. Whether a person votes or not is on the public record. But voter reactions have ranged from creeped-out to angry.

Read more: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/politics/Mailbox-letters-aim-to-shame-Michigan-voters-to-turn-out-on-election-day/-/1719386/17234630/-/jn03jr/-/index.html

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Strange bordering on creepy. WTF could be the motive?

[EC]

1. That turned up here during

Walker recall. I think it was repubs making it look like Dems were sending them out, can't quite recall whole story. People were mad that how they voted was being sent to neighbors.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

2. I got one of these.

Saying I didn't vote in 2008. I certainly did.

[DonRedwood]

3. There was a study that showed that people were more inclined to vote if they were shown

that their neighbors voted.

It showed up in both dems and repubs...nobody wants their neighbors to know they don't vote.

[crunch60]

4. Something like that is going around Nevada, I got one from MoveOn.org

wrote and gave them a piece of my mind, big time. Said they just wanted to remind me of my voting record,, No Thanks. This one was a card type, not even in an envelope.

Here's the link.. jerks

http://www.voterreportcard.org/

[LovingA2andMI]

5. Here's the question....

Is who you voted for is the information contained on these envelopes of information or what straight party ticket one may have voted for in the last primary and/or general election? Sadly the latter is legal in Michigan (thanks to our stupid Republican Secretary of State Ruth Johnson) but giving out information on WHO YOU VOTED FOR is not.

This is why I refuse to vote a straight Democratic ticket in the General Election, although I vote in the Democratic Primary. At best, I'll confuse the hell out of "firms" or "groups" like this.

[tblue37]

6. No--THAT would be illegal. The information is THAT someone voted, NOT how he voted. nt

[PATRICK]

7. Then there are a number of reasons

they use this tactic, because it doesn't make any sense to me. They must weigh the psychological advantages of the "we are watching you, you irresponsible low vote citizen" in the public mail.

it reminds me of very disturbed individual cranks who post tons of public postcards or letters with diatribes scrawled over the envelope(mostly illegible). A few postal workers may inadvertently connect a familiar name but the impression is ominously emphasized you are being publicly leaned on. Now unions publish the names of non union members on bulletin boards in the workplace. How much and what kind of success this has I have no idea.

My son received his "neighborhood scorecard" from Working America([e-mail]) in New York. Apparently this is an AFL-CIO effort? It has picture of smiling children on the back. Smiley face. Going to be tracked forever which is good to know since if he succeeds in moving out I wonder how the next cards will look. Non-profit imprint out of Lansdale, PA permit #2004 which seems a common printer source.

He is voting passionately for Obama because of the scumbags in the GOP. He tore up the tracking card. It didn't help. So I suppose on the law of stats this does help like nauseating attack ads(even if true) are something Dems are forced to do?

The mail is a unique and universal contact resource which I don't think is very well utilized by either party. Obviously this one grabs attention and reaction for GOTV but there is no way of dressing it up as totally friendly.