University students in Colorado supporting President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign during this week’s early campus voting engaged in illegal and “obnoxious shenanigans” to lure voters to the polls, according to one student who documented the activity.
CU Boulder junior Aslinn Scott, 21, told The College Fix that Obama supporters at her school, as well as others across the state, bent the rules – or broke the law – to woo peers to the campus ballot box for Obama.
Within 100 feet of the CU Boulder’s early campus polling spot, some students placed homemade pro-Obama yard signs in the ground —- a violation of state voting laws, she said.
As for more questionable tactics, they also used golf carts and asked peers to “ride the Obama wagon to the polls,” they doled out free candy, soda and pizza near the entrance to the voting booths, they used sidewalk chalk to paint the pathway for Obama, and stuck Obama stickers “everywhere,” Scott said.
Scott filed official complaints with campus administrators over the pro-Obama materials within 100 feet of the polling sites, and the items were removed earlier this week, she said.
The pro-Obama students Friday also stopped driving the “Obama wagon” right up to the entrance of the campus polling spot, and have instead dropped voters off at a bus stop nearby, she said.
“They engaged in some really obnoxious shenanigans,” said Scott, who took pictures of much of the activity earlier this week. “They monopolized the polling area.”
She said she believes those actions may intimidate others from voting, or may make someone feel obligated to vote for a different candidate. She said she was glad campus officials took her complaints seriously and changes were made.
Scott is a Students for Romney and campus Republican student leader.
For her part, Scott said her pro-Romney peers know the battleground lies across the entire campus and “beyond the polling area.” They have gone door-to-door and handed out literature, she said.
In addition to what took place at CU Boulder, very similar voting issues went down at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, where students also doled out free pizza for Obama votes and had a complaint filed against them by the Colorado Republican Committee, Scott said.
“It shows they are willing to bend the rules,” Scott said, pointing to a CBS news article that details the Fort Collins activities.
The stakes could not be higher in Colorado, a swing state, she adds. Data indicates Romney has an edge over Obama, 50 percent to 47 percent, according to a recent Rasmussen poll.
Scott said young Republicans in Colorado are just as excited and energetic about their candidate as their Democrat peers – but they’re keeping things classy.
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