Abstract
The second chapter of this project is an exploration of the statutes around the nation that address political deception. It is broken into three sections, which will explain the definition of the categories for the statutes and how some of the examples, found in the Appendix, fit into each one. This will be followed by a discussion of the constitutionality of these statutes. There will also be a brief discussion of punishments for political deception. The chapter concludes with an argument that while strong First Amendment protection of political speech is important, the legal arguments against these statutes creates a different set of problems.
…incumbents, challengers, voters, and the political process will benefit from vigorous political debate that is not made with actual malice and is not defamatory.
Washington RCW § 42.17A.335 (2009)
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Notes
- 1.
Not all states have ballot numbers next to candidate names. The most infamous example of this, just to illustrate the point, would be the state of Florida in the 2000 presidential election. In that election the candidate names and ballot numbers were aligned awkwardly. Democrat Al Gore was number five on the ballot and Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan was number four. However, due to the strange alignment of the numbers and names, some voters intended to vote for Gore but accidentally voted for Buchanan.
- 2.
An example of this would be the story of when Karl Rove, campaign manager for President George W. Bush’s two successful presidential runs, pretended to be a volunteer for a Democratic candidate for state treasurer in Illinois in 1970. He allegedly stole letterhead from the Democrat’s campaign and printed flyers advertising a party at the campaign headquarters promising “free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing” (Cannon et al. 2003, p. 10).
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Spicer, R.N. (2018). Conduct, Affiliation, and Messages: A Typology of Statutes Addressing Political Deception. In: Free Speech and False Speech. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69820-5_2
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