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An unknown party in Mississippi is circulating a fake sample ballot designed to lead voters in a majority-black district that Sen. Roger Wicker (R) is a Democrat.
The campaign of Mississippi Democratic Senate candidate Ronnie Musgrove issued a statement accusing Wicker’s campaign of distributing the flier but spokesman Adam Bozzi told The Hill they could not prove that claim.
A Wicker spokesman said the campaign only learned of the fake sample ballot when the Musgrove campaign sent it to reporters.
“I don’t know where it came from. It’s the first we’ve seen of it,” said Ryan Annison, Wicker’s spokesman.
The ballot features photographs and boldfaced names of Democratic candidates — and of Wicker, which could leave voters to conclude that the incumbent is a Democrat.
Labeled, “Sample Ballot, Hinds County,” the document includes a disclaimer at the bottom of the second page reading, “Paid for by Wicker for Senate.”
Whoever created and disseminated the ballot apparently did so in order to drum up votes for Wicker among supporters of Obama and other Democratic candidates, including Rep. Bennie Thompson.
The ballot even highlights long-shot Democratic Senate candidate Erik Fleming, who is running to unseat Wicker’s GOP colleague, senior Sen. Thad Cochran.
Fleming, like Obama and Thompson, is black. Democratic congressional candidate Joel Gill, who is white, is highlighted in the same way, as is nonpartisan state Supreme Court candidate Jim Kitchens, who also is white.
According to census data from 2006, Hinds County is 65.9 percent black. President Bush twice won Mississippi handily but Hinds County went 60 percent for Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in 2004 and 54 percent for then-Vice President Al Gore (D) in 2000.
The Musgrove campaign learned of the sample ballot when a citizen brought it to a campaign office, Bozzi said. The Democrat’s camp is investigating the document’s origins.
The Wicker campaign also is “trying to get to the bottom of this,” Annison said, “but at 5:30 on the day before an election, I’m not going to tell you it’s a priority.”
Wicker faces a tougher road to reelection than the veteran Cochran. Not only does he face a well-funded former governor in Musgrove, but he has served in the Senate for less than a year and was not elected to the seat.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) appointed Wicker, then a House member, to the Senate last year to finish out the term of then-Sen. Trent Lott (R), who retired from Congress to become a lobbyist. Download a PDF copy of the ballot here .
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