Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler called on state and federal lawmakers Tuesday to sharpen the lines between legal and illegal campaign activities as he released recommendations from a task force meant to prevent a repeat of the failures of the 2006 primary.
“This last election was a dirty election … was it over the top in Maryland? Yes. Yes it was. And it should be illegal,” Gansler said, referring to the three-hour-long lines at some Prince George’s County polling places and advertisements meant to dissuade black voters from voting in Prince George’s and Baltimore that were distributed in the fall of 2006.
The task force released recommendations meant to prepare state and county election boards for what could be the state’s largest voter turnout this November. Much of the concern discussed in both the report and at a news conference at the Evangel Cathedral in Prince George’s, where in 2006 many voters walked away from long lines, focused on threats to black, and other minority, voters.
In 2006, the black vote was expected to be pivotal as the governor’s race heated up and fliers passed out near polling places in Baltimore and Prince George’s incorrectly informed voters in those majority-black areas that some black leaders were endorsing Republicans, task force members said. Other fliers provided false information about polling places and times.
The black community can be an easy target for these activities because “of historic barriers put up to people voting and, as a result, African-Americans tend to believe misinformation,” said Carl Snowden, director of civil rights for the attorney general’s office.
Gansler said the fliers the task force uncovered are protected by free-speech rights, but new federal and state laws in the works are meant to change that.
Meanwhile, state laws cracking down on voter fraud could start gaining greater traction after the Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of an Indiana law requiring voters to have photo identification at the polls.
The state has a legitimate interest “in protecting the integrity and reliability of the electoral process,” Justice Paul Stevens wrote in the majority opinion.
