Voters’ rights advocates said they continue to battle enduring rumors intended to disenfranchise as the Nov. 4 presidential election nears.
Since establishing a “disenfranchise hotline” last week, Marvin “Doc” Cheatham, president of the Baltimore chapter of the NAACP, said he has received hundreds of inquiries about false election rumors. Some voters have received e-mails that suggest foreclosed homeowners will not be allowed to vote, he said. False rumors that anyone wearing campaign buttons or T-shirts will be turned away from the polls also are circulating.
“The stakes are high — every game in the book is going to be played,” Cheatham said. “We got to give people the facts.”
Rumors are so rampant that Maryland’s Board of Elections has established a first-ever “rumor control” page on its Web site. The page clarifies a false rumor that absentee ballots will be automatically sent to voters who used them previously and attempts to quell a another that suggests out-of-state college students can’t register to vote locally if their parents claim them as dependents for tax purposes.
Many of the rumors aren’t new, officials said, but are receiving more attention with historic voter turnout expected.
“It’s a larger group of people that are interested,” said Orlan Johnson, co-chair of Maryland Attorney General Doug Gansler’s voting task force. “A lot more people are paying attention.”
Cheatham last week circulated e-mails accusing the Baltimore City Board of Elections of disenfranchising ex-felons. He said the board asked about 400 ex-felons to “prove” they have completed their sentence.
All voters should cast ballots whether they think they might be qualified or not, said ACLU legal program administrator Amy Cruice.
“I think it’s a sad state when people assume they don’t have the right to vote or are questioning their right to vote,” Cruice said.
