...someone must be getting a little desperate!

My daughter in Jacksonville, Florida sent me this from her local news:

"A new mailing from the Republican National Committee and the McCain campaign to Florida voters has Democrats saying they're the victim of dirty tricks. They say that at the very least, the mailing is meant to confuse voters in this battleground state. Republicans say Democrats are making much ado abut nothing.

Lifelong Democrat Marilyn DiMauro of Naples was surprised to get a letter recently from Republican presidential contender John McCain. "I thought, well that's strange, because I'm a Democrat. And when I opened the envelope, there was a card that said I was listed as a Republican with my registration number. So I immediately got my Democratic card, and the registration number was not the same," she says.

She thought the mailing — labeled "Party Affiliation Voter Registration Card" — was a little fishy — especially when she found out two of her friends who are Democrats had received the same thing but a Republican friend had not.

"So I just felt that there was some diabolical reason for doing this mailing," she says. "Why would you spend the money?"

That's what Jim Reynolds, another lifelong Democrat in Naples, wants to know. He happens to be a former U.S. attorney from Iowa. And he has filed a mail-fraud complaint with the postal service. Reynolds thinks Republicans are trying to confuse Democratic voters into thinking there's a problem with their registrations.
"They're just doing everything to try to suppress a certain segment that they feel are not going to be favorable to them," he says.

And indeed, Florida election officials have reported dozens of worried calls from voters. A copy of the mailing obtained by NPR shows that it includes an official-looking card, listing the recipient's name, address, congressional district, party affiliation and something called a voter ID number. In an attached letter, McCain asks recipients to update the enclosed card — and to contribute to his campaign...
Jerry Holland, the Republican supervisor of elections in Duval County, received so many calls from worried voters that he released a statement last week assuring them that only a voter can change his or her own registration.

"Whoever designed the piece obviously created something, knowingly or unknowingly, confusing to some voters, because obviously they were concerned that maybe someone had changed their party," says Holland."