Stand up to dirty campaign tricks

The deceptive mailer against County Commission candidate Tye Menser (The Olympian, 10/23/18) fits the Republican’s nationwide tactic of voter suppression.

Elsewhere, they target Native American and black voters. Here, it’s young and infrequent voters.

As an old activist, I immediately knew the mailer was a dirty trick. A write-in campaign for EJ Zita against “phony progressive” Tye Menser? That’s crazy! I know Tye is a true progressive, and that EJ supports him.

I also know write-ins only benefit Tye’s opponent, Republican (“prefers Independent”) Bud Blake. And I know the mailer’s listed author, Glen Morgan, is a Republican activist, friend and ally of Blake.

So I’m clearly not the target of this scam. But most new, young, and infrequent voters don’t know all those things, and some of them will be tricked into voting 100 percent against their own values.

Morgan doesn’t care about getting fined by the PDC (our “election police”) next year, because the damage is already done. He thinks we can’t do anything about it.

But you, the voters of Thurston County, can do something about it. Some voters will get tricked out of voting for Tye Menser, but you can balance out the score.

Don’t leave your ballot unmarked. Don’t just vote to reelect Senator Maria Cantwell. Vote in all those local races, too, for Tye and the local Democratic team.

Don’t let Morgan’s dirty tricks take Tye Menser down. He’s a good man. And he’ll be a great County Commissioner.