Sharron Angle’s campaign is accusing Harry Reid and his supporters of using “ACORN-style tactics” to buy off people’s votes in the Nevada Senate race. “Harry Reid intends to steal this election if he can’t win it outright,” Cleta Mitchell, Angle’s campaign attorney, wrote in a fundraising email to supporters on Tuesday, saying that the campaign needed to raise $80,000 to send “dozens of election law attorneys and poll watchers” to the polls. Mitchell continues:
As Sharron Angle’s campaign attorney, I am sorry to report that the Democrats and their cronies are up to their same old tricks, of trying to manipulate the election in hopes of skewing the results in their favor.
Two days ago, the Democratic Secretary of State announced that voters can be provided “free food” at “voter turnout events.” Harry Reid has been offering free food and, according to other reports, some Democratic allies such as teachers’ unions are offering gift cards in return for a vote for Reid….Now, this week in Las Vegas, at our election hotline, we received reports that some teachers’ union representatives were offering Starbucks cards to people to get them to vote for Harry Reid. It is even more disturbing and may be possible that they are using their influence and authority as educators to entice students on behalf of Reid…
The Democrats’ willingness to allow voters to be enticed with a promise of any thing of value is a debasement of the process- and it may just destroy everything we’ve worked for.
Nevada’s Secretary of State dismissed the Angle campaign’s vote-buying allegations yesterday, saying that Mitchell “fails fails to cite any evidence of ‘vote buying’ in the State of Nevada other than reports to their election hotline about representatives of unions.” The Secretary of State urged anyone who had an election crime to report provide supporting evidence such as witness statements, contact information, and specific descriptions of violative conduct.”
Angle may the first major candidate to accuse her opponent of stealing the election outright this year, but it’s unlikely that she’ll be the last. A growing number of Republicans in tight races have taken up the crusade against voter fraud, including Mark Kirk, who’s planning a large-scale operation to send poll watchers and lawyers on Election Day. In the meantime, it’s also a good way to stoke the conservative base, which is already primed to believe that union thugs and New Black Panther wannabes will steal the election anyway.
