Extremists use fake laws to harm real voters
Rachel Maddow’s show highlighted the recent harassment of low-income voters in Massachusetts. This must be stopped.
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Secretary of State Bill Galvin and Attorney General Martha Coakley should find ways to prevent this behavior before it spreads. Last year, State Senator Jamie Eldridge and MassVOTE suggested adding a Deceptive Practices statute to Massachusetts law. His bill said:
No person, political committee, organization, association, or other entity shall falsely impersonate an election official, use the state seal without authority, or otherwise distribute false information about voting and elections for the purpose of delaying, preventing, dissuading or otherwise interfering with a voter exercising the right to vote whether such false information is communicated by written, electronic, spoken, by telephone or by any other means. Violation of this section shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than five thousand dollars.
