Ingraham encourages listeners to jam phone lines of Democratic voter assistance hotline

As the weblog Firedoglake first noted, during the November 7 edition of her nationally syndicated talk radio show, Laura Ingraham urged listeners to jam the phone lines of 1-888-DEM-VOTE, a voter assistance hotline sponsored by the Democratic Party. Ingraham stated: "I want you to call it and I want you tell us what you get when you call 1-888-DEM-VOTE. They're on top of all of the shenanigans at the polling stations. One problem: you can't get through." Minutes later, while talking with a listener who called the hotline, Ingraham said: "Let's keep 'dem' lines ringing." Ingraham, a frequent Fox News contributor, is scheduled to appear on the November 7 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto.

According to Firedoglake, the voter assistance hotline is "now being flooded with calls from crank callers."

From the November 7 edition of Talk Radio Network's The Laura Ingraham Show:

INGRAHAM: Multiple callers are calling the 1-888-DUMB-VOTE line and they said that the line is now broken. That you can't get through.

MATT FOX (technical producer): The Democrats can't even do that right; they can't even do a help line.

INGRAHAM: First of all, you're telling people that their vote is being suppressed at all these polling stations across the country. Vote is being suppressed, what are you talking about? You want to see voter suppression? Try to vote in Iraq when you have snipers on rooftops, OK? Those people walk to the polls; they don't care about the snipers. So don't talk to me about voter suppression. That is the biggest bunch of baloney that we've been sold, and we've been sold it election after election by desperate Democrats -- 1-888-DEM-VOTE. I want you to call it, and I want you tell us what you get when you call 1-888-DEM-VOTE. They're on top of all of the shenanigans at the polling stations. One problem -- you can't get through.

[...]

CALLER: Hey, Laura, I called the 888 number. I think I cost the Democrats at least 25 cents.

INGRAHAM: What happened?

CALLER: Well, you get the number, they ask you to put in your zip code; they ask you, of course, English or Spanish.

INGRAHAM: Blood type?

CALLER: And, you know, they say that they'll trace back to your phone. They give you options as to do you want to find your polling place, did you have trouble voting?

INGRAHAM: Do you know what zip code you live in?

CALLER: Oh yeah, I did. I'm pretty sharp.

INGRAHAM: So you never got through, you never got through to talk to a real live dumb poll helper?

CALLER: No, I just got voice mail. I figured I was gonna cost as much money as I could. Well, finally, when they couldn't answer my questions electronically, they said, "We'll forward your call to the local election office."

INGRAHAM: 1-888-dim -- or dumb -- VOTE. No, it's really DEM-VOTE. Let's keep "dem" lines ringing.

—A.I. & S.T.