Are you asking why this particular ploy is so stupid, or why the format itself is so stupid?  Although I think the answers boil down to the same thing, really.

It gets, if you can believe it, even more incoherent from there.  Is incoherence a ploy to make it more believable?  I’ve never understood that, if it is.  I’d think something that’s neatly typed, spell-checked, and literate would be more believable than incoherent rantings.  And it seems that a lot of these fliers that do try to look official in some way, perhaps by having some kind of letterhead or seal on them, still are badly copied or even worse, mimeographed.  I understand not wanting to spring for letterhead for this sort of thing, but still.  My working theories are the people who pass out fliers are spittle-shooting wingnuts who couldn’t spell or string together a logical thought in their lives, or they’re fairly literate people who assume the intended audience for this sort of thing is stupid.

I tend to lean toward your first theory (the perpetrator simply cannot write well), at least in this instance.

Dave & Sara have been reporting, on the blog Orcinus, on a kind of low-level racist guerilla campaign that they think is going on against Obama. I have not had much first-hand experience with this supposed campaign, but I think Dave & Sara are on the level, and I tend to trust them.

What is interesting, this kind of slow-moving, decentralized campaign is somewhat reminiscent of some things I’ve read about “Fourth Generation War”.

These are terms that I don’t understand too well yet, and they seem to be controversial. Are there any military readers who would care to comment?

INTPagan, these tactics may be “stupid”, but they also may have some effectiveness. I don’t think we can discount them, or their perpetrators.

My working theories are the people who pass out fliers are spittle-shooting wingnuts who couldn’t spell or string together a logical thought in their lives, or they’re fairly literate people who assume the intended audience for this sort of thing is stupid.

And walla!

V. funny! No, it can’ be anything but the former. The format—a long, gray sea of text—is a guarantee that the piece will not be read. Anyone with a brain in his or her head would employ extremely fundamental precepts of graphic design: Break up the text into bullet-points, use headers to divide the various points being made, employ illustrations, etc., etc., etc.

The person(s) who put that thing together knows nothing about information design, doesn’t know how to make a point in a simple way. I’d suspect somebody who read a primer on electoral ratfucking, decided to try it, and wound up covered in the sweet, sweet methamphetamine dross of Epic Fail.

I don’t necessarily think the tactics themselves are stupid (in fact, I don’t think so at all), but that doesn’t stop me from thinking that the idiots who wrote these letters are, which makes it look like the people being told to carry out this kind of thing are.

Whoever thinks up these things isn’t stupid, but they really should take care of itself instead of having their second-grader type up their letter, yanno?

They were doing this in Milwaukee last time when I was canvassing for Kerry.

Students, people, if you hear rumors this is happening, DO NOT LISTEN and DO NOT FEED/SPREAD the rumor.  The police have a whole lot more to worry about than harassing you for traffic tickets.  In any case, Bush has been so bad actually funding the police, I can’t imagine in most places (ie large cities) they’d allow themselves to be the tool of the Republican party.  It’s not in their best interests.

Those stereotype banana republics are starting to look like havens of peace and democracy.  At least when they have elections they get people like Jimmy Carter and UN watchdog groups monitoring the polls.

If you’re concerned about intimidation on election day itself, VOTE EARLY or by ABSENTEE.

That way you’ll be available to do day-of-election GOTV, poll-watching, and watching the watchers.

The police have a whole lot more to worry about than harassing you for traffic tickets.

Actually, ironically, yesterday they showed up at a friend’s former residence to arrest him for an unpaid traffic ticket.  (He paid it before they got to his current residence.)

So, while the scam may not be true, the idea that they have nothing better to do is woefully wrong, at least, in Dallas-Fort Worth, where traffic is such the pressing crime problem.

Dumb shits.

Maybe the writers are trying to disguise their distinctive prose styles so that the notes won’t be traced back to them.

I think it might be fun to set out fliers saying something like “I heard from a McCain supporter that the feds are taking election tampering seriously this year, so if you distribute fliers claiming that people can be arrested for trying to vote, or give out false information about polling places, you can go to federal prison.”

Oh, it’s definitely possible to be arrested for outstanding traffic violations. 

It’s just really, really unlikely that cops are going to hang out in polling places screening every registered voter for outstanding warrants.  Federal-level elections are just too big for that to be worthwhile.

There are also all sorts of laws about what sorts of things can and cannot go on within a certain distance of polling places.  I’m pretty sure it’s either illegal or very much discouraged for local police to do something like lurking around polling places trying to arrest people.

I’d just like to mention that Drexel is a twofer—college campus in a poor neighborhood with a majority minority population. Although the city of Philadelphia has tried to rebrand the area containing Drexel and UPenn as “University City,” folks who have lived there aren’t fooled; they’re going to school in West Philly.

Recently, at school, an Obama supporter approached me during a rock the vote assembly. He informed that (sic) on the day of the election there will be undercover officers to execute warrants on those who come to vote based on the anticipated turnout. He advised me if I had any outstanding warrants or traffic offenses I should clear them up prior to voting. They assume this to be an opportunity for those who normally go by fake names and addresses, to give their real names and id’s. Allowing them to place name and face together and walla (sic), gotcha! Arrested on the spot. So if you have one or the other take care of it.

Due to the electronic genius of wireless technology this can and will take place all around the nation from L.A. to New York. Why hasn’t this been done before? This seems to be a great way to arrest or just be able to identify criminals in the area. I applaud the new efforts of local and state authorities and hope to see a great success rate. I’m sorry to say but I don’t think they should be able to vote anyway! Question? Are convicted felons allowed to vote?

He also said that both Obama and McCain support this idea but that he, “Obama”, (sic) does not want the public to see any of his supporters get locked up showing their support or illegally voting for him. An incentive to avoid the legal dilemmas, but still participate in the vote is being put in place. This would allow individuals to turn themselves in, prior to voting, without legal penalty. This type of incentive recently took place at a South Philadelphia church with an outstanding turnout. Is this taking away from the true freedom of voting? Is this legal?

So I called up my mother on my cell to tell her about what was going on and she got scared. She said ‘You’re movin’ with your auntie and uncle in Bel Air’

I begged and pleaded with her day after day
But she packed my suite case and send me on my way
She gave me a kiss and then she gave me my ticket.
I put my walkman on and said, ‘I might as well kick it’.

First class, yo this is bad
Drinking orange juice out of a champagne glass.
Is this what the people of Bel-Air Living like?
Hmmmmm this might be alright.

But wait I hear there’re prissy, wine all that
Is Bel-Air the type of place they send this cool cat?
I don’t think sow
I’ll see when I get there
I hope they’re prepared for the prince of Bel-Air

Well, the plane landed and when I came out
There was a dude who looked like a cop standing there with my name out
I ain’t trying to get arrested
I just got here
I sprang with the quickness like lightening, disappeared

I whistled for a cab and when it came near
The license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror
If anything I can say this cab is rare
But I thought ‘Now forget it’ - ‘Yo homes to Bel Air’

I pulled up to the house about 7 or 8
And I yelled to the cabbie ‘Yo homes smell ya later’
I looked at my kingdom
I was finally there
To sit on my throne as the Prince of Bel Air

And the thread goes to (sadly) Anonymous.

lolchan

Oh god damn it, NOT NOW GUISE

I saw one of those the other day and tore it down and took it with me. To me it reads like someone who is trying to sound crazy. Why would they do that? What works better: “I don’t like the idea of a black president and I don’t like black people and I’m telling you not to go out and vote on election day” or “Hi! I’m really paranoid but there might be a grain of truth to my crazy! They’re going to be arresting people at polling places - just like South Philly last month - so if you have any kind of business with the law, you shouldn’t show up. I’m a fan of this stuff, of course.”

The reason I vote for fake crazy is because the tone shifts so wildly from the beginning, where they seemed opposed to the idea and were just ranting about how scary it all is, to the end, where they seem to be down with it. It just comes off like someone who is trying really, really hard to sound like a super paranoid wingnut who is just looking out for people in their own special way. Also, them being a student? I’m not buying it.

On the other hand, they just might be a super paranoid wingnut! It’s quite possible. It’s just that their missives tend to not read like that.

I’ve seen those before, and since they are usually only spread around african american neighborhoods, I think it is intentional.  They think that black people are so illiterate and anti-white that they won’t read anything in “white” english.  Whereas, the theory goes, if you write it in an illiterate style, all those anti-learning black people will think another black person wrote, and therefore they will believe it.

That’s my theory, at least.

It would be totally unfair and unethical to spread flyers around church parking lots explaining that voter registration cards are the mark of the antichrist described in the Book of Revelations and that new electronic voting machines are how the black helicopters of the United Nations track gun owners down for forced abortions. It would be completely inappropriate for thousands of these to be distributed around malls and megachurches. I completely disavow such behavior.

Until right now I never knew that there was a long-form version of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme, or whatever it’s called.

And I used to watch that show all the time!

I find the location bizarre. Not many people on college campuses *have* outstanding warrants, and on Penn/Drexel, people are used to ignoring flyers with ranting hysterical language. Admittedly, usually the hysterical flyers are about how the US government is importing cocaine to destroy the Black Man, so their origin is left-wing wackjobs rather than right-wing wackjobs, but I can’t see your average college student giving either any serious credence.

It would make more sense to pass out flyers giving incorrect information about how to register to vote in Pennsylvania. (“Did you know Pennsylvania allows you to register to vote *at* the polling place? Bring your student id and you can register to vote in PA right there at the polls!” And then distracted, procrastinating college students won’t bother to get their absentee ballots in because hey, they can just register to vote at the polls, right? And then of course it doesn’t work because in fact you need to be registered by October.)

Drexel in particular is odd because it’s very east for West Philly, practically next door to downtown, and a lot whiter than the Penn campus is. I’d have expected to see these flyers circulate around Penn, not Drexel.

It would make more sense to pass out flyers giving incorrect information about how to register to vote in Pennsylvania.

Which, once again, points to this being the work of someone who just isn’t very slick. My worry is that they’ll eventually either figure out a better way to attack the college population’s voting, or that they will take these tactics to Pennsylvania where they might work.