In 2002, Allen Raymond, your typical bland Republican Party backroom political operative, helped concoct and carry out a scheme to jam the Democratic Party's get-out-the-vote phone lines in New Hampshire, in the midst of a very close Senate election, by using a computer phone caller.
A simple scheme, not unlike hundreds of dirty tricks used by campaigns on both sides of the aisle every year. The only difference this time: Raymond actually got caught and even did time in the Big House--a little that is, three months--for his crime.
Now Raymond--who took the fall for some bigger wigs in the White House--is out of jail, and out with a book, "How To Rig An Election," in which he confesses to other sins as well. We don't purchase books by crooks, and we don't advise you to get this one. But since the WaPo has a story on the fellow and his book--giving it far more promotion than it deserves, we thought we'd see what he had to say for himself.
What he says is that he was caught up in the "game," where all that mattered was "winning." He didn't even care about ideology or any of that. What he doesn't do is name the names of the people who approved and paid for his dirty work.
He talks about other dirty tricks, like having robo-calls made in support of a Democratic candidate with the voice of an angry black man making the pitch. Racism is part of the steady diet of tricksters--remember Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich's scheme to bus in African-Americans from Philly to confuse voters in Prince George's County a couple years ago?
Anyway, if you've ever wondered just how high danger is that someone would try to rig an election by tampering with computerized ballot machines, then just read the WaPo article (not the book), and you'll have a pretty good idea: VERY high.
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