NC robocalls may generate huge penalties and political implications
Putting aside any vote-suppression related lawbreaking WVWV may have done (or not), the non-profit may be facing substantial penalties for breaking other laws according to the North Carolina Attorney General’s office. And if WVWV did in fact break the law, voters may be eligible to recover damages. Moreover, there are more political connections between the Hillary campaign and WVWV than I previously noted.
Maggie Williams, Hillary’s campaign manager, was on WVWV’s Leadership Team and this is the bio previously published on their Web site.
Maggie Williams,
Griffin Williams Critical Point Management
Maggie Williams is a partner in GriffinWilliams LLC, a management consulting firm that helps public and private sector clients navigate transitions and respond to political challenges. As a private communications and management consultant, she has advised clients that include Scholastic Publishing Corporation, the Smithsonian Institution, Hillary Clinton for Senate, and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation.
Williams served as chief of staff to former president Bill Clinton managing his policy and personal staff at the Clinton Foundation in New York City. From 1993-1997, Williams served in The White House as one of seventeen assistants to President Clinton and also served as chief of staff to First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. In the course of a political and advocacy career spanning three decades, Williams has held numerous positions including director of communications for the Children’s Defense Fund, deputy director of media relations for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, campaign press secretary to Senator Robert Torricelli, and deputy press secretary of the Democratic National Committee.
She holds a M.A. in Communication Philosophy from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. in Political Science and Urban Studies from Trinity College in Washington, D.C.
Although WVWV has removed any evidence of Williams from their Web site, everyone knows nothing is ever removed from the Internet. The bio is on the Web archive as of July 8, 2007.
The political implications are not clear, however some of the criminal considerations — not related to Williams or the Hillary campaign — WVWV may face are clear.
North Carolina’s Acting Senior Deputy Attorney General Gary R. Govert wrote a letter (pdf) today to WVWV’s lawyer, Holly Schadler of D.C.-based Licthman, Trister & Ross, advising him that WVWV appeared to have broken N.C. law(s) regulating telephone solicitation.
As we discussed, these robocalls appear to have been made in violation of N.C.G.S. § 75-104. Failure to comply with this statute subjects the offender to civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation, and individuals who receive these unlawful calls may separately recover statutory damages in the same amounts. N.C.G.S. § 75-105.
To recap, according to Facing South and other reports, this is the robocall message voters in N.C. received:
"Hello, this is Lamont Williams. In the next few days, you will receive a voter registration packet in the mail. All you need to do is sign it, date it and return your application. Then you will be able to vote and make your voice heard. Please return the voter registration form when it arrives. Thank you."
WVWV failed to tell voters the nature of the call, who was calling (Lamont Williams doesn’t exist), and other required information. Specifically, N.C.G.S § 75-104(b)(1)(c) states:
And as Govert indicated, under N.C. law, N.C.G.S § 75-105(a)(1), WVWV could be penalized $5,000 for all but two of the thousands of calls they made.
As for those the voters, N.C. law, N.C.G.S § 75-105(b)(2), states each person called may be eligible to recover $500 to $5,000.
I can’t begin to guess how many thousands of calls WVWV may have made, but according to Communications Director Sara Johnson, WVWV had determined "570,000 unmarried women in North Carolina" and the AP reported 275,000 mailers were mailed this week.
