Where do I begin? Well let's just begin with the NC voter's guide:

A North Carolina resident who is qualified to register to vote may register In-Person and vote at a One-Stop Site in the person's county of residence during the One-Stop Absentee Voting period. The One-Stop Voting period extends from 19 to 3 days before Election Day.

The process is sometimes referred to as "In-Person Registration," but it is important to recognize that it not permitted on Election Day itself.

To use this process, a citizen must (1) go to a One-Stop Voting Site in the county of residence during the One Stop Absentee Voting period, (2) fill out a voter registration application, and (3) provide proof of residency by showing the elections official an appropriate form of identification with the citizen's current name and current address.  The new registrant may vote ONLY at a One-Stop Absentee Voting Site in the county of registration during One-Stop Absentee Voting period and not on Election Day.

So according to NC law voters are allowed to register by mail upto 25 days before the primary or if they have not registered they can fill out a registration for and go to one of the One-Stop sites in person with valid ID and register and vote. In Chapel Hill up until tomorrow and later both campaigns, Obama campaign in particular, are organizing a drive for early voting. On Friday Arcade Fire is supposed to play at the Carrboro town-center with registration forms on hand so people can register there and walk across to the town hall and vote for Obama. Nothing illegal here.

Which brings me to this sloppy hit-piece by the Chris Kromm. He starts by writing this:

First, a quick recap: As we covered yesterday, N.C. residents have reported receiving peculiar automated calls from someone claiming to be "Lamont Williams." The caller says that a "voter registration packet" is coming in the mail, and the recipient can sign it and mail it back to be registered to vote. No other information is provided.

So Chris does not specify whether the registration is for the primary or the general. He then makes a leap of faith and claims this:

There are other questions about Women's Voices' outreach efforts. Although the group purports to be targeting "unmarried women," their calls and mailings don't fit the profile. Kevin Farmer in Durham, who first recorded the call, is a white male. Many of the recipients are African-American; Rev. Nelson Johnson, who is a married, male and African-American, reported that his house was called four times by the mysterious "Lamont Williams."

He writes that he had corresponded with a staffer but does not specify what he asked beyond the fact that this group was making the calls. No word whether this was for the general or the primary.

But the most egregious part of this hit-job was this:

Some have also questioned the ties between Women's Voices operatives and Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton. Gardner, for example, contributed $2,500 to Clinton's HILLPAC on May 4, 2006, and in March 2005 she donated a total of $4,200 to Clinton, according to The Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org. She has not contributed to the Obama campaign, according to the database.

Women's Voices Executive Director Joe Goode worked for Bill Clinton's election campaign in 1992 as a pollster; the group's website says he was intimately involved in "development and implementation of all polling and focus groups done for the presidential primary and general election campaigns" for Clinton.

Women's Voices board member John Podesta, former Chief of Staff for President Bill Clinton, donated $2,300 to Hillary Clinton on April 19, 2007, according to OpenSecrets.org. Podesta also donated $1,000 to Barack Obama in July 2004, but that was well before Obama announced his candidacy for president.

Keep in mind that John Podesta founded the Center for American Progress that is in effect an answer to the overwhelming presence of right wing think-tanks like American Enterprise Institute.

But moving on Sue Sturgis on Facing South staff does a follow-up story:

We noted, for example, that WVWV Founder and President Page Gardner has donated generously to Clinton and to HILLPAC, but has given nothing to the Obama campaign, according to OpenSecrets.org. We also noted that WVWV Executive Director Joe Goode previously worked as a pollster for Bill Clinton, and that WVWV board member John Podesta is the former chief of staff for President Clinton as well as a Hillary Clinton donor.

There are other connections that we did not mention, but that have been pointed out in comments here and at other sites. For example, Maggie Williams is a former member of WVWV's leadership team, according to Sourcewatch.org; she also served as chief of staff to First Lady Hillary Clinton and to the Clinton Foundation in New York, and she was named the manager of Clinton's campaign in February. And Holly Schadler, WVWV's attorney, helped set up the Back to Business Committee in 1994 to defend Bill and Hillary Clinton from attacks by political enemies.

But one of the most striking connections between WVWV and the Clinton campaign -- and one particularly relevant to a story involving what appear to be voter suppression efforts right before an election -- was pointed out to us by a reader. He notes that the firm in charge of voter outreach for WVWV is MSHC Partners, whose president is Hal Malchow. Sourcewatch.org reports that Malchow was a member of WVWV's leadership team.

At the same time, MSHC also does direct mail and outreach for the Hillary Clinton campaign. In fact, the campaign owes MSHC $807,000, according to Politico.com.

So yet again Facing South catalogs a list of people who donated to Clinton or are associated with Clinton. So I did some investigation of my own.

1. Page Gardner: Sturgis makes the claim that Page Gardner had contributed generously to Hillary Clinton and HillPac. What she omits is that those contributions were made on or before 2006. Since 2007 she has not paid a single penny to either candidate.

2. Joe Goode: his association with the Clintons is as Bill Clinton's pollster. Beyond that I could find nothing about him this election cycle.

3. John Podesta: contributed to Hillary Clinton in April 2007. Since then he has not contributed to either presidential cnadidate.

4. Ruth Ferguson: paid $1000 to Obama campaign this year, 2008 (somehow it got omitted by the Sturgis)

5. Nancy McDonald: did not contribute to either campaign

6.Chris Dresser: no contributions listed

7. Ashley James: no contributions

8. Michael Lux: no contributions

9. Mimi Mager: gave $2000 to Hillary Clinton, last in September 2007

10. William McNary: Ben Smith at Politico writes this:

This seems, so far, unconvincing to me. Also on the board, for instance, is William McNary, the president of the progressive coalition USAction and a leader of Illinois Citizen Action who has been, reportedly, a vigorous Obama supporters since his 2004 Senate race.

Something conveniently omitted by Sturgis.

11. Maggie Rheinstein: contributed $900 to the Obama campaign this year (omitted by Sturgis)

12. Holly Schadler: was involved in Clinton WH but is a prominent lawyer in the DC non-profit circles

13. Hal Malchow: Senior partner at MSHC who is owed roughly 800 grand by the Clinton campaign the last time I checked. His last major contribution listed is $10000 to DCCC in 2007. However Open Source also adds this: Hal Malchow was one of the senior consultants on John Kerry's presidential campaign.

Lest we get carried away in this hype and anoint the messiah who can do not wrong, who walks on water and is pure as driven snow, well think again:

Obama Robocalls telling WA voters wrong caucus date

State gets Obama calls complaint

Obama's High Crimes and Misdemeanor

But the kicker is this editorial from DHinMI who is infamous for writing a crummy and altogether nasty sexual fantasy diary overat the blog meant for the elite "creative class" of the Democratic party:

And it should be pointed out that a non-profit group focusing efforts on registering unmarried women in presidential primaries has to know that their activities will almost certainly help Hillary Clinton, as unmarried white women is probably her strongest demographic.

See in DHinMI's world unmarried white women are sex objects who should not vote lest they elect Hillary. So getting single women, who more likely than not work multiple jobs and do not have time to register, to register and vote is a grave sin in the ideal progressive world that the "creative class" over at Daily Kos envisions for the Democratic party.

Finally for those who are outraged at the shoddy journalism and the baseless innuendos from Facing South join me and let the authors there know what you think of his poorly researched/selectively written hit-job.

Chris Kromm
chris@southernstudies.org

Sue Sturgis
sue@southernstudies.org

Full statement from Page Gardner addressing this controversy as it appears on Ben Smith's blog at Politico:

Statement of Page Gardner, President, Women's Voices, Women Vote.

"This week, more than 276,000 North Carolina residents received a voter registration application from Women's Voices, Women Vote. North Carolina is one of 24 states where we mailed a total of more than 3 million voter registration applications.

"In addition to the mailing, calls were made to mail recipients for whom we have working phone numbers to alert the household they would be receiving a voter registration form and encouraging them to register to vote. In advance of the mail, a letter was sent and calls were made to Gary Bartlett in the North Carolina Board of Elections Office notifying them of the intent and content of our mailing effort. A copy of the letter and a press release sent to North Carolina media announcing the registration effort is attached.

"We understand concerns have been raised about the source of phone calls placed by Women's Voices, Women Vote. These calls were our sincere attempt to encourage voter registration for those not registered for the general election this fall. We understand North Carolina's primary registration effort deadline was April 11, (other than those participating in early voting who may register and vote at the same time this week). We apologize for any confusion our calls may have caused. Our intent and purpose was solely to call attention to the registration applications we hope will be completed and returned to the Board of Elections office making thousands more North Carolinians participants in one of the most important elections of our lifetimes.

Women's Voices. Women Vote has been in contact with the North Carolina State Board of Elections to work together to resolve any confusion regarding our voter registration efforts. Women's Voices. Women vote is also working with its mail vendor and postal officials in North Carolina in an attempt to delay the delivery of the voter registration applications until after the primary.

"Women's Voices. Women Vote is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to bringing the voices of unmarried women to our democracy. Our goal in this election cycle is to register 1 million of these women on their own, in turn helping to bring their concerns regarding making affordable health care, equal pay for equal work and a brighter future for themselves and the lives of their families, to the forefront of the election this fall.

"Already this cycle, our voter registration efforts have generated more than 26,600 registration applications in North Carolina. Women's Voices. Women Vote first registered voters in North Carolina in 2004. Nationally, Women's Voices Women Vote registered over 100,000 new voters in both 2004 and 2006. Since July of 2007, almost 400,000 additional individuals have returned our applications in anticipation of participating in the 2008 general election.

Bryant (Ethel Bryant, Edgecombe County Board of Elections) agreed the method seems to be working. "They send out the voter's applications in a pre-packaged envelope with postage paid," she said. "Many are female and from rural areas, where it is harder to run out and get a stamp to post a letter. Since it doesn't need a stamp, they are able to drop it right in the mail."

"Voter Registration Cards Pour In," The Daily Southerner, February 29, 2008

"This is, by far, the largest we've seen," Johnnie Mclean (deputy director of the State Board of Elections)said. One reason for the state's uptick are prefilled voter registration applications from a Washington-based voting advocacy (WVWV) group that were mailed to thousands of private mailboxes in North Carolina. Recipients can verify their information and mail the cards to the state elections office.

"Young Voters: Sign Us Up", Greensboro News-Record, March 9, 2008

UPDATE Seems why NC voters got these calls because this was a scheduled voter registration drive across 24 states for the GE which just ran into bad timing. WVWV press release is below:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Sarah Johnson 202-659-9570 Voter Registration Drive Encourages Participation of Under-Represented in November Election Mail Registration Brings More Voices to Vote in November Election Women’s Voices. Women Vote Encourages North Carolina’s Unmarried Women to Register to Vote for the General Election WASHINGTON, DC – Continuing their campaign to register unmarried women to vote, and encourage this under-represented group to engage in democracy, Women’s Voices Women Vote is mailing more than 3 million voter registration applications in 24 states. In North Carolina alone, more than 276,000 citizens will be mailed the voter registration application, allowing them to register for the November general election. The deadline to register to vote in the upcoming primary was April 11. North Carolinians can complete the application they receive in the mail to conveniently register to vote for the general election on November 4. The application cannot be used to register to vote in the May 6 primary. “Although North Carolinians cannot use this application to register to vote in the up- coming primary on May 6, residents can complete the form and drop it in their mailbox to register to vote in the general election this November,” said Page Gardner, President of Women’s Voices. Women Vote. Women’s Voices Women Vote, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to increasing the number of unmarried women participating in our democracy, is mailing voter registration forms to more than 3 million homes in 24 states: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. “We’re in the midst of a sea change in our country, as we’re seeing a new America emerge right before our eyes,” said Gardner. “For the first time in our country’s history, there are as many unmarried women as there are married, yet women on their own are still registering and voting less than their married sisters, leaving their voice absent from our democracy,” said Gardner. Unmarried women – those single, separated, divorced or widowed - are 53 million of the voting-age population. Although they are potentially 26 percent of the electorate, they are 9 percentage points less likely to register and 13 percentage points less likely to vote than married women. In the last presidential election in 2004, 20 million unmarried women were absent from the polls. According to 2006 U.S. Census data, more than 570,000 unmarried women in North Carolina were not registered and more than 502,000 unmarried women were registered, but did not vote. “A majority of households in our country are headed by an unmarried person,” said Gardner. “Unmarried women are economically stretched, and their time is so valuable since they must provide for themselves and their families on their own. Making it as easy as possible to register to vote will ensure their voices are heard in our democracy.” Residents who are eligible to register for the primary but missed the deadline may still register and vote through the state’s One-Stop Absentee Sites. Qualified residents may register and vote at their county designated One-Stop Site from 19 to 3 days before Election Day. More information on North Carolina One-Stop Absentee voting is available on the State Board of Elections website at http://www.sboe.state.nc.us/content.aspx?ID=32. To identify voter registration application recipients, Women’s Voices Women Vote uses a sophisticated matching process that compares a consumer data list with the North Carolina file of registered voters. The National Voter Registration Application was created by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, an independent, bipartisan commission created from the Help America Vote Act of 2002, and is accepted in 48 states. For more information on the voter registration applications, visit www.voterparticipationcenter.org.