Ted Cruz keeps digging his own grave

Makes me wonder:

 If Cruz is willing to purchase voting records to intimidate/shame voters, then what will he be willing to do with ALL OUR TELEPHONE RECORDS?

“Your individual voting history as well as your neighbors’ are public record,” the flier read. “Their scores are published below, and many of them will see your score as well. CAUCUS ON MONDAY TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE and please encourage your neighbors to caucus as well. A follow-up notice may be issued following Monday’s caucuses.” Below the text was a list of names, letter grades and percentage scores. “We intend to mail an updated chart,” the mailer warned. “You and your neighbors will all know who voted and who did not.”

 http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2016/01/30/iowa-official-cri...

Iowa's secretary of state on Saturday blasted Ted Cruz's campaign over a controversial mailer that aims to drive voters to the polls for Monday's caucuses by claiming they have committed "violations."

"Today I was shown a piece of literature from the Cruz for President campaign that misrepresents the role of my office, and worse, misrepresents Iowa election law," Paul Pate, a Republican, said in a statement Saturday.

The mailer gave the recipient, along with their neighbors, poor grades based on their individual voting history. On one side, the mailer reads: "ELECTION ALERT: VOTER VIOLATION," "PUBLIC RECORD" and "FURTHER ACTION NEEDED."

The other side of the mailer says "VOTING VIOLATION" in red letters at the top before text that reads:

"You are receiving this election notice because of low expected voter turnout in your area. Your individual voting history as well as your neighbors' are public record. Their scores are published below, and many of them will see your score as well. CAUCUS ON MONDAY TO IMPROVE YOUR SCORE and please encourage your neighbors to caucus as well. A follow-up notice may be issued following Monday's caucuses."

Accusing citizens of Iowa of a "voting violation" based on Iowa Caucus participation, or lack thereof, is false representation of an official act," Pate said in his statement. "There is no such thing as an election violation related to frequency of voting. http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/30/politics/ted-cruz-mailer-iowa-caucuses-vot...

“I probably was not going to go caucus. I never was going to be a Ted Cruz supporter,” Hinkeldey said, adding that he’s followed Marco Rubio “a little bit here and there” and will caucus for the Florida senator on Monday.

On the report card-style mailer, Hinkeldey and all of his neighbors received a “F” grade. He added that his neighbors in the small town in northwest Iowa are “good people,” despite the low voter score.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/01/30/see-the-public-shaming-mailer...

It’s not clear then, whether the data released by the “voter violations” is even accurate, or whether it reflects any recorded voting trends whatsoever. Cruz, however, has said he will not apologize for the technique, and will be continuing his campaign of insufferable priggishness up until—and after—the Iowa caucuses on Monday.

http://gawker.com/ted-cruzs-ludicrous-voter-shaming-mailer-strategy-is-a...

In Iowa, although voter-registration information is free and available to the public, voter history is not. That information is maintained by the secretary of state, who licenses it to campaigns, super PACs, polling firms, and any other entity that might want it. So was the Cruz campaign accurately portraying the voter histories of Iowans? Or did it simply make up the numbers?

I e-mailed Catherine Frazier, a spokeswoman for the Cruz campaign, and asked her what the campaign’s methodology was for arriving at its voting scores and whether the scores were fraudulent. “This was a mailer designed from public information and modeled on past successful mailers used by the Iowa GOP to turn out voters, so that we can have as high of a turnout as possible on caucus day,” she said. “I’ll leave it at that.” She did not explain the methodology used, nor did she answer my question about whether the numbers were made up.

It seems to have made them up. Dave Peterson, a political scientist at Iowa State University who is well-acquainted with the research on “social pressure” turnout techniques, received a mailer last week. The Cruz campaign pegged his voting percentage at fifty-five per cent, which seems to be the most common score that the campaign gives out. (All of the neighbors listed on Peterson’s mailer also received a score of fifty-five per cent.)

The Cruz mailers have been widely condemned by Iowans. “I just wonder how many of these went out to people who might seriously believe they committed a violation or were embarrassed that their neighbors might know about their alleged voting record,” Braddock Massey, a Rubio supporter who lives in West Des Moines and received one of the mailers, said.

Donna Holstein, who was listed on one of them, was upset to learn that she had been given a failing grade and that her neighbors might be told whether she participates in the caucus. She told me that she has voted consistently but that she can’t this time because of a disability.

“I’m crippled, so I can’t go to the caucus,” Holstein said. She was not happy about being shamed in front of her neighbors. “That’s what you call a bully,” she said about Cruz’s tactics. “I wish he would quit.”  http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/ted-cruzs-iowa-mailers-are-more-...

Many voters have been turned off by this tactic, which have resulted in the following responses;

They will no longer vote for Cruz, defiantly not vote at all, or worse for Cruz - caucus for a different candidate.

All I can say is; "Keep on digging Ted!"

Here's what Rand had to say about it:

Hypocrisy is TedCruz shaming Iowacaucus goers for missing votes after missing AudittheFed http://bit.ly/1KgXUWR