Están locos estos Americanos

En EEUU, "Election Day" se celebra el Martes posterior al primer Lunes de Noviembre, y este año cae el 7 de Noviembre.

Lo curioso de EEUU es que los partidos políticos, en vez de hacer campaña para que les voten sus partidarios, a veces hacen campaña para convencer a los contrarios de que no vayan a votar.

Este artículo del NY Times lo explica muy bien. Parece que los expertos en estas técnicas son los Republicanos, que se saben todos los trucos para desmovilizar al electorado contrario, en particular a los votantes negros, que tradicionalmente apoyan al partido Demócrata:

For Democrats like these in tight races, black voter turnout will be crucial on Election Day. But despite a generally buoyant Democratic Party nationally, there are worries among Democratic strategists in some states that blacks may not turn up at the polls in big enough numbers because of disillusionment over past shenanigans.

Como los Demócratas ya se saben los trucos que se gastan los Republicanos, tienen que organizar equipos de abogados para detectar irregularidades:

This will be the first midterm election in which the Democratic Party is mobilizing teams of lawyers and poll watchers, to check for irregularities including suppression of the black vote, in at least a dozen of the closest districts, Ms. Brazile said.

Democrats’ worries are backed up by a Pew Research Center report that found that blacks were twice as likely now than they were in 2004 to say they had little or no confidence in the voting system, rising to 29 percent from 15 percent.

El 29% de los votantes negros piensan que sus votos ni siquiera serán incluidos en el recuento final:

And more than three times as many blacks as whites — 29 percent versus 8 percent — say they do not believe that their vote will be accurately tallied.

Voting experts say the disillusionment is the cumulative effect of election problems in 2000 and 2004, and a reaction to new identification and voter registration laws.

Aunque parezca increíble, algunos partidos se dedican a distribuir panfletos con información equivocada en ciertos barrios, para intentar que la gente no acuda a votar, bajo la amenaza de que si lo hacen pueden ser detenidos si tienen multas pendientes:

Long lines and shortages of poll workers in lower-income neighborhoods in the 2004 election and widespread reports of fliers with misinformation appearing in minority areas have also had a corrosive effect on confidence, experts say.

[…]

She traced her own skepticism to one afternoon two months before the last presidential election when she overheard several young black men saying they were not going to vote because they feared being arrested at the polling station for their unpaid parking tickets. The neighborhood had been flooded with fliers from the Milwaukee Black Voters League, a fictitious group, saying that even minor infractions like parking tickets disqualified people from voting.

El mejor de todos es este caso, en el que hicieron a la gente creer que los republicanos votaban en martes y los demócratas en miércoles:

The type of misleading letter sent this month to 14,000 Hispanic immigrants in Orange County, Calif., threatening them with arrest if they tried to vote, was hardly a first. In 2004, similar fliers appeared in predominantly black neighborhoods in the Pittsburgh area, on official-looking letterheads. The fliers said that because of unusually high voter registration, Republicans were to vote on Election Day, and Democrats were to vote the next day.

Aunque, bien pensado, si alguien se traga ese timo, casi mejor que no vote ... ;-)