View source for 2002 Election NH "Phone Jamming" Case

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The '''2002 Election NH "phone jamming" case''' revolves around the hiring by the New Hampshire Republican Party of the Virginia-based telemarketing firm [[GOP Marketplace]]. Republican operative [[Allen Raymond]], who was president of the firm at the time, then "subcontracted the deed" to Mylo Enterprises Inc., a Pocatello, Idaho, phone bank shop. [http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2003_02_02.php#000625][http://www.seacoastcareers.com/2004news/07162004/news/26988.htm]

Prosecutors allege that 'GOP Marketplace' "was paid to make repeated hang-up phone calls to overwhelm the phone banks in New Hampshire and prevent them from getting Democratic voters to the polls" on Election Day, November 5, 2002. Six phone lines that were being run by Democratic "coordinated campaign offices," as well as phones in the offices of the Manchester firefighters union -- which was also doing a get-out-the-vote campaign that morning -- were jammed by 800 computer-generated hang up calls that tied up the lines for 1 1/2 hours. [http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/12/305320.shtml][http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2005/08/10/national/w231835D50.DTL&type=printable]

Voters' rights were violated as the "computer-generated calls went to lines set up for voters who needed rides to the polls in Manchester, Nashua, Rochester and Claremont." The calls were "stopped after then-Republican State Committee Chairman John Dowd ordered a halt because of concerns about their legality." [http://www.seacoastcareers.com/2004news/07162004/news/26988.htm]

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