Election Fraud—Virginia

Given that it is Election Day, it seems appropriate to note that the FBI is apparently “investigating complaints about attempts to intimidate Virginia voters amid the hard-fought U.S. Senate race between GOP Sen. George Allen and Democratic challenger Jim Webb.”^[1]

According to Virginia’s secretary of the Board of Elections, Jean Jensen, “her office had forwarded several reports of phone calls to voters apparently aimed at misleading them into not voting or going to the wrong polling place.”^[2] Some residents have “reported getting deceptive telephone calls in the days before the election informing them that their voting place had changed, when they had not,” and in Arlington County, Timothy Daly received a phone message over the weekend claiming to be from the “Virginia Elections Commission” which told him “he was registered to vote in New York so he couldn’t vote in Virginia.”^[3] Another person reported that “he got a call on Friday claiming to be from the Webb campaign,” and when he assured her that he would be voting for Webb, she proceeded to give him incorrect information, such as telling him that he “would be voting at West Reed Street,” which apparently does not exist in his area.^[4]

Similar claims have been filed in New Mexico, and Ohio prosecutors have “also ward voters to be wary of potentially fraudulent calls claiming that their voting precincts had been changed.”^[5]

There are a number of election-related crimes in the US Code, but the most relevant section, 18 U.S.C. § 594 (Intimidation of Voters), is an imperfect fit for this type of behavior. Under this section, it is a crime to intimidate, threaten, coerce, or attempt to do so, any person for the purpose of interfering with the right of such other person to vote or to vote as he may choose, or to influence that person’s vote for a candidate for the office of the President, Vice President, Presidential elector, Member of the Senate, or Member of the House of Representatives, inter alia. A violation of section 594 can be punished by a fine, imprisonment for up to a year, or both.

Other laws can apply, however, such as was seen when Charles McGee was charged with conspiracy to engage in interstate telephone communications with the intent to annoy or harass, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and 47 U.S.C. § 223 when he jammed New Hampshire Democratic phone lines in 2002.^[6] There are a whole host of violations encapsulated in 47 U.S.C. § 223, the most relevant being the prohibition against making a telephone call without disclosing one’s identity with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass any person at the called number. ^[7] The punishment for doing so is a fine, imprisonment for up to two years, or both.

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[1] Zinie Chen Sampson, FBI Investigating Va. Voter Calls, AP (via Yahoo!), Nov. 7, 2006.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] See United States v. McGee, No. 1:04-cr-00146 (D.N.H. 2004); Thomas B. Edsall, GOP Official Faces Sentence in Phone-Jamming, Wash. Post, May 17, 2006.
[7] 47 U.S.C. § 223(a)(1)(C).