A Cheesy Way To Lure Voters
In Philadelphia they're calling it "The Cheese Caper." A Deputy City Commissioner asked the District Attorney's office to investigate who passed out flyers on primary election day -- May 17 -- promising free cheese to voters for particular candidates. The flyers are topped by a handwritten scrawl, "Come Out + Vote," adding below, "For Who Ever." In type, they say "Free Cheese." The flyers list two candidates, both Democrats, running in an area dominated by the 300-plus-unit Hill Creek housing project. "This guy comes to the polls, votes, and asks us for his free cheese," says Eileen Kleindienst, a Republican judge of elections. Geraldine Hacker, the Republican official who sent Kleindienst's complaint to the DA, thought the food might be from a government nutrition program.
The woman who wrote the flyers, Hill Creek tenant council President Gerri Robinson, doesn't think she did anything wrong. "The people around here, you can't get them to come out and do nothing unless you're giving them something," she says. Besides, she adds, the flyers worked: The two cases of cottage cheese were gone by day's end.
By Eamon Javers
This could be considered bribery. According to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it is illegal to offer any form of payment in order to get some to vote or register to vote. However, because this is a municipal and not a federal election, I don’t know how state law covers this case. In the 2004 election, Michael Moore came to Michigan State and offered packs of ramen noodles and underwear in exchange for promises to vote. He got away with it, though, because the local prosecutors refused to take up the case.
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