Hundreds of flyers appeared across campus late last night, falsely claiming that out-of-state students who register and vote in Pennsylvania face losing state grant money.
The original Associated Press article that appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times mentioned that Pennsylvania natives who go to out-of-state colleges might lose eligibility for state funding -- a situation that in no way affects any Penn students. The altered version falsely claimed that Penn students stand to lose money from their home states.
The flyers were unsigned, and it was unclear who was behind the effort.
Campus Democrats were quick to blame Republicans for trying to suppress campus turnout.
"They altered parts of the story to make it a scare tactic. This whole thing is a fraud," said Daniel De Rosa, Penn College Democrats campus issues director. "Eighty percent of Penn is going to go towards Kerry. ... The only group that would stand to benefit from this ... would be Republicans."
But Republicans on campus are also upset about the tactics used in the flyer.
"The article is absolute crap. It doesn't affect a single student on Penn's campus," said David Copley, chairman of the Pennsylvania State Federation of College Republicans. "It looks extremely bad for Republicans on this campus, and it looks like someone is trying to suppress the [youth] vote. ... I am very, very upset. These tactics are totally immoral."
College Democrats said they collected more than 100 flyers from Hill College House. Flyers also appeared in the Quadrangle and the high rises.
College Democrats plan to continue informing voters about the fabricated information throughout the day tomorrow. E-mails were sent across various listservs on campus to inform students that the flyers are false.
"This kind of effort, after the registration and the night before the election, has nothing to do with voter education, but is just intended to scare students [away] from voting," said Ivan Frishberg, a spokesman for the New Voters Project, a national non-partisan voter registration group.
He added that similar scare tactics are being used in New Hampshire in an attempt to decrease voter turnout among students.
Some students who saw the flyer last night were skeptical of it.
"I don't think it will have a significant impact on voter turnout," Wharton and College junior Amir Memon said. "It doesn't look very credible."
Memon is an out-of-state student who registered to vote in Pennsylvania and said he is still very excited to vote in his first election.
