I happen to live in a suburb and district that, too often, votes for Democrats (Illinois's 10th, where we are currently represented by a Republican, Bob Dold).  This year, people in my suburb are getting mailed notices with their names on top and underneath their names, in bold print, “Official Voting Record.”

What follows is a rundown on the history of the recipients’ voting record since 2008 in general elections – not whom they voted for, but whether they voted.  Underneath that record is a notification that while your vote may be secret, whether or not you vote is a matter of public record.

The mailing continues:

This year we’re sending you and your neighbors those records to help you keep track of your civic participation.

How would your friends, family and neighbors feel if they saw your voting record and knew you were an infrequent voter”

Do your part and make a plan to vote on Tuesday, November 8^th.

In small fine print is a notice that the mailing was paid for by the “Progressive Turnout Project” and not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.

However, if one turns to the website of the group, http://www.turnoutpac.org, one can see in bold headlines “Connecting with voters and getting Democrats to the polls.”  At the bottom of the first page is a local P.O. box address, leading one to think (wrongly) that the group is truly a local, grassroots effort – as its boosters pitch themselves to be.

That would be, naturally, a lie.

Clicking through the website will show no names of who is running and funding this project, but one will see the races they are targeting across the country.  They are in battleground districts with a substantial number of Democrats.  Every single politician this group is targeting is a Republican.  This “grassroots group” is no such thing, and though it may boast that it is some sort of civic group that is not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee, it is in reality an AstroTurf (fake grassroots) group, funded by the Democratic Party or its allies to increase the turnout of people who will likely vote Democratic.

My friend who shared the mailing with me is not registered as a Democrat or Republican.  I am registered as a Republican and did not get the mailing.

Clearly, the mailing was geared toward increasing the number of votes for the Democrat running in my district, since it is likely that people who are not registered as Republicans would be inclined to vote Democratic.  As mentioned above, this district is very mixed between Republicans and Democrats.  If you exclude from the mailings registered Republicans, the group increases the odds that its mailings can intimidate people into going to the polls and voting Democrat.  

But what is most offensive is the intimidation and threat of exposure (blackmail?) to one’s friends, family, and neighbors that you chose not to vote.  This tactic is underhanded and repugnant – something that should not surprise, since the Democratic Party, as Kimberly Strassel has written in her outstanding book The Intimidation Game and as Project Veritas Action has shown with its videos, specializes in intimidation.