Media Matters for America

Wash. Post falsely implied voter suppression efforts are bipartisan

November 01, 2004 2:33 pm ET

The front page of the October 31 edition of The Washington Post included the following teaser to an article inside the paper:

Dirtiest of Tricks
The hairbreadth presidential race has brought out the worst in political dirty tricks on voters, election officials say.

While this teaser implied that the article would be about dirty tricks by both Republicans and Democrats, the reality, as laid out in the article itself (on page A22), is that it is primarily Republicans who appear to be trying unfairly, and even illegally, to suppress the vote of those likely to vote Democrat. The article noted the following activities apparently aimed at suppressing Democratic voters:

Regarding allegations against Democrats of voter suppression, the Post article had only this very general statement, with no anecdotal or statistical support:

Authorities in several states also are investigating claims, by former employees of groups paid by both the Republican Party and Democratic-leaning interest groups, that they destroyed or did not turn in new registrations by voters of the opposite party.

&mdash D.B.B.

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